Popular art from my DeviantArt account:
 Wednesday, January 03, 2007
What do you wanna learn about WPF?I'm still finding that many people are still not trying WPF. Many don't know where to start. So to help people adopt WPF, Andy Eick and I are creating some cool "learning material".
Instead of assuming we know what you - "Joe Developer" or "Joe Designer" - want to know more about in WPF, we'll just ask you.
What do you want to learn about in WPF? Does databinding interest you? Or maybe custom controls? Or scalable layouts? Or the declarative XAML?
Post a comment and leave your thoughts. We will make sure we do our best to satisfy your questions in our "learning material". Really. Free training material tailored to your needs - what more could you ask for?!
Keep reading Andy's blog and mine for updates. 
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Monday, December 18, 2006
Flickr Collections including "My Water"
I finally decided to go with flickr as my photographic gallery. I ended up loading hundreds of pictures today. My favorite is the "My Water" collection.
A couple of months ago, I was in Mumbai for IndiMIX and we were enduring a long taxi ride to the Microsoft office. I had my camera with me as usual and was snapping random pictures everywhere. At a stop light, I saw this very young kid standing next to a bus stop. He was barefoot and looked very poor and possibly homeless (which in Mumbai has a very vague meaning!). He was carrying around a discarded half litre soda bottle full of water.
I started taking photos of him purely on instinct (and because of his charming smile). He was so curious about something hanging from a small chain on one of the poles of the bus stop. He kept playing with his water, washing his head, and splashing water everywhere. He was very quite, didn't seem to be speaking at all. He would walk around and then come back to the thing on the chain and he was SO curious.
It was heartbreaking! And then he moved away from the pole and went to a shop with shoes lined up in the window. I just wanted to get out of the car and get him a pair of shoes. But to my shock he wasn't interested in the shoes. He just wanted to pour some water on the window sill and play some more.
At that moment I decided to get out of the car and just hand him some money. He was unsupervised so I hoped he could spend it on something he LIKED and not needed. But before I could do anything the traffic started moving and there wasn't anything I could do.
I went back through the same route the next day but I couldn't find the kid.
You can see the "My Water" set at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nukeation/sets/72157594424347659/
and my other collections at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nukeation/
Saturday, December 16, 2006
WinInfo Short Takes makes my weekend!FUD of the Week: IDC Says Microsoft Will Drive Users to Linux
I'm a big fan of "This Is the Year of Desktop Linux" stories because, a) it has never happened, and b) it obviously will never happen. But that hasn't stopped the prescient analysts at IDC from predicting that Microsoft, ironically, will be responsible for driving users from Windows to, yes, Linux. How will this happen, you ask? Well, Microsoft's heavy-handed approach to software piracy is so onerous, IDC said, that users will go running to the relative safety and friendliness of Linux. Hey, it makes sense. Oh wait, no it doesn't.
It's Official: Google Is Evil
Apparently, Google's corporate mantra--"Do no evil"--includes a typo, because the company's behavior is decidedly evil. I'm not even sure where to start on this one. There's the license agreement for Google's phishing filter, which basically tells you that, yes, the company is going to give away your private information. Then there's the debacle of last week's release of a Google-branded version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 7, which conspicuously copied--in a blatant, wholehearted fashion--a similar Yahoo project. But my favorite little bit of fun out of Mordor--er, ah, Google--has got to be what happens if you try to change the default search provider on version of IE 7 in which you've installed the Google toolbar. It actually prevents you from changing the search provider to anything other than Google, using a feature that presents itself as protection against other applications that are trying to surreptitiously change your search provider. And you know how often that happens.
Courtesy: www.winsupersite.com | Paul Thurrott's WinInfo UPDATE
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Jungle Coast - Costa RicaThe website for Jungle Coast (Costa Rica) has gone live at http://www.junglecoast.com - designed by Nukeation Studios (as usual).  Jungle Coast is owned by a dear friend of mine, Cynthia Najim. She is perhaps the craziest person I know. I mean it in a good way (in this context). I met her a few years back when we worked on a project together (in India). Check out this excerpt from her profile:
"While living in Hong Kong for 12 years, Cynthia managed a variety of events around Asia, including the official celebrations for the reunification of Hong Kong and China, the APEC Business Forum, Chinese New Year Parade and others. Cynthia also studied in Spain, served the diplomatic community in Washington, DC, was Program Director for the Guam USO, did pro-bono marketing work in India, and led a tour through Tibet - among other projects." She's also a terrific photographer. Check out the visual gallery at www.junglecoast.com (under EXPERIENCE). Since we share a great love for nature, she's been telling me to come to Costa Rica - which I plan to in early 2007. I badly need a vacation - been working non-stop since 2002!! Anyways, I'm gonna upgrade my photographic equipment (Andy, help!!) and do my first "photo tour" in Costa Rica. It seems like such a lovely place. And I'm a reptile freak (along with a plain freak) so I'm told I'll love it there. Maybe even climb into a volcano. Swim with crocs. Check out the Tortuga National Park. Maybe even take a sidetrip to Galapagos. I love turtles/tortoises. In fact, my first word as a baby was "turtle". No wait, my first word was "onion". The next one was "turtle". Is it sad that I'm thinking how much fun it would be to blog about the trip as opposed to thinking how much fun the trip would be? Sigh. Anyways, check out the site, and if you're looking to invest in some property in Costa Rica, this is the person to call. :) PS. No, she is NOT trespassing in this picture.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Monday, December 04, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Vue 6: My dive back into 3D
My original professional roots are in 3D animation. It's been a long time since I've done any 3D work. Recently I couldn't help but get Vue 6 Infinite (even though it's still pre-release!). It is perhaps the best 3D nature design software I've worked with. I intend to write a detailed review/experience of Vue 6. For now I just wanted to share some initial renders I did with SkinVue and the new Spectral Atmosphere model. As you can clearly see, the results are amazing.
"Bareback"
"The Last Dragon"
MetaClouds + Spectral Atmosphere Render 1
Spectral Atmosphere + MetaClouds - Render 2
Spectral Atmosphere Render 3
Saturday, November 25, 2006
New User Experience BlogLeon Brown, the Expression/UX head honcho for Microsoft Asia-Pacific, has just started a new UX blog: Expression & UX in Asia. Prior to joining Microsoft recently, Leon was the Senior Product Manager for Illustrator and the Creative Suite line up at Adobe for 8 years. This is definetely a blog to keep your eye on.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Monday, November 13, 2006
Saturday, November 11, 2006
IndiMIX'06
From left to right:
Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman of Microsoft India; Tarun Gulati, MD of Microsoft India; Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corp.; Dax Pandhi (Me), CEO of Nukeation Studios.
This week has been amazing! I don't do much public speaking but the guys at Microsoft got me to be a speaker at IndiMIX'06. The central focus of the event was Expression and Live. Designer and developer. Cricket and Bollywood.
The event (my first big event) was fantastic. It started with a keynote from Steve Ballmer. Following that the application MatchCast, a high-end cricket statistic and analysis application, was showcased by Anil Kumble. Nukeation was the UX consultant on the application.
There was more stuff after that (from 1100 to 1300) but I missed it for two reasons. First, as the winner of Microsoft Blogstar, I had to go backstage and meet Steve himself!
>> This blog has been interrupted to announce that you are reading the blog of a Blogstar. We now return to the regularly scheduled post. <<
I got my photo taken with him, but they haven't sent it to me yet. :/ And secondly, after Steve left, my team had to prepare for our session.
The Designer Session Team
This was my first real, big speaking event and I was nervous as hell at first. The main reason I was able to give a good presentation was because of three incredibly cool people - Leon Brown, Pandurang Nayak, and Deepak Gulati. Our session was 75 minutes and covered the three Expression products. We also launched www.1expression.net (more on that later) and the WebRockstars contest at http://www.webrockstars.in/
I couldn't have asked for a better team! These guys are amazing. Thanks so much, guys! We spent two days in a conference room in Microsoft Mumbai preparing for our stuff. It was a first-of-it's-kind experience for me. Of course, the traditional "pizza while debugging" was a familiar entity.
Our session went excellently. It opened up with Leon (who was our session host) and cricket player Murali Kartik (a name Leon still probably can't pronounce - man, he got a lot of torture from me about that - and lots of other stuff!), followed by a walkthrough of Expression Web by Pandurang.
Pandu explains the session to Murali Kartik
I followed that with a brief intro of Expression Graphic Designer and Expression Interactive Designer. After that Deepak and I did a Developer-Designer workflow integration demo. He made a strict "developer looking" application (aka, functional but crappy looking) in Visual Studio 2005 with "Orcas" tools. I opened the solution in ExprID and enhanced it with styles and animations. We got a really great response from the audience. Deepak and I immediately developed this chemistry which allowed us to create a funny little style of working together on-stage. And I think the people really loved it.
We ended our session with three important things: an announcement that great things will be revealed about Expression in the first week of December; the launch of www.1expression.net; and a Q&A session. My fun moment there was representing my fellow designers worldwide - the most audible form of that was during the closing when someone asked "What are the debugging capabilities of Expression Interactive?". Deepak, Leon, and Pandu gave good, real answers. I, of course, said "Designers don't debug". :)
Mandira Bedi, TV personality and the host of the live webcast
I again missed the next session (Developer) as I was asked to be interviewed on the live webcast (75k viewers - made my knees shake!) by Mandira Bedi. I was able to catch Bob Muglia's closing remarks and Q&A. After the event, Leon and I also did a short interview for CNBC.
Bob Muglia answers a question. The four guys in the background are Deepak Gulati, Janakiram MSV, Kevin D'Souza, and Rohit Kapoor.
Praveen Srivatsa, Microsoft Regional Director for Bangalore, takes software construction seriously
Over the past 5 days, I got to meet some really great people - Microsfties, MVPs, RDs, simple civilianss, business execs, Cricket stars, movie stars, and who can forget Steve Ballmer! I also got to learn so many cool things that I can't tell without violating a dozen NDAs. That's the price you pay for being close to Microsoft.
All I can say is: hang on - the ride has just begun!
PS. Leon, yes, still MEKNB.
Designer/Developer Processes: Part One of ManyRecently, Kevin Cannon posted a comment on my post "The Designer Angle: Uncharted territory". I was writing a reply to him when I thought maybe this would make a good post in of itself and highlight some collateral thoughts. Kevin wrote: That is how you should do it. A rule of design is that you shouldn't think about the underlying code at all. By all means spec out a project so it doesn't go over budget in development, but if a designer is worrying about implementation too much then there's a problem. Just look at what happened when designers started learning CSS. All CSS-only webpages ended up looking like weblogs. Then after awhile, designers were confident enough in their skills that they could return to designing what was best for the client, without worrying about how it was going to be implemented, because they were confident it could be done. Creating software is all about the user and how the user interacts with software. And the interface designer controls that, not the developer. Products should never be led by technology, they should be led by users needs. That's the whole point of Expression ID, to separate out these distinct processes. What alternative do you suggest? I don't dispute this. In fact, I quite agree with it. Heck, in response to a question about the debugging capabilities of ExprID (asked during IndiMIX'06 a couple of days ago, more info to be posted later) I replied "Designers don't debug!". :) Well, that was half jokingly. The point I was trying to make was that designers think in a very different way than developers do. The "how" of design and technological implementation differs from team to team or person to person. The point I was trying to make was that designers think differently and that Microsoft does not yet completely grasp that particular way of thinking. And I say "yet", not "can't". This is a transitory period for the industry. Both designers and developers will have learn how to work better together. It is high time that the process of design and development were made distinctly separate. I did a presentation at IndiMIX'06 on Thursday with the amazing Deepak Gulati about this very thing - the Developer + Designer integration. I'm also writing an article for MSDN on this subject with different scenarios and providing some examples of how to work out a process that works best for you. My next blog post is about IndiMIX'06 - and the revelations I had there and during the pre-event journey that will shed more light on what I'm talking about (on this subject, at least) :)
Friday, November 03, 2006
Watch IndiMix'06 LIVE from any major Microsoft Office in your city!No, no, I'm not talking about the Office with Word, Excel, etc. I'm talking about the real offices with developers, evangelists, etc.
Head on over the "Virtual Townhall" at www.indimix06.com and check out how you can view the event live from any Microsoft Office in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, New Delhi.
Here is the list of speakers at the event:
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 Steve Ballmer
CEO, Microsoft Corporation
Steven A. Ballmer is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of software for personal and business computing. Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and was the first business manager hired by Bill Gates. Since then, Ballmer’s leadership and passion have become hallmarks of his tenure at the company.
During the past 20 years, Ballmer has headed several Microsoft divisions, including operations, operating systems development, and sales and support. In July 1998, he was promoted to President, a role that gave him day-to-day responsibility for running Microsoft. He was named CEO in January 2000, assuming full management responsibility for the company, which includes delivering on the company’s mission of enabling people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.
Together with Gates and the company’s other business and technical leaders, Ballmer is focused on continuing Microsoft’s innovation and leadership across the company’s seven businesses. Microsoft’s goal is to provide an integrated platform to enable a seamless experience across a wide range of computing and non-PC devices and services.
Variously described as ebullient, focused, funny, passionate, sincere, hard-charging and dynamic, Ballmer has infused Microsoft with his own brand of energetic leadership, vision and spirit over the years.
Ballmer was born in March 1956, and grew up near Detroit, where his father worked as a manager at Ford Motor Co. He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics. While in college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on the Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the university literary magazine, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. After college, he worked for two years at Procter & Gamble Co. as an assistant product manager and, before joining Microsoft, attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business. |
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 Anil Kumble
Indian Cricketer & Director, StumpVision (P) Ltd.
No bowler in India's history has won more Test matches than Anil Kumble, and there probably hasn't been a harder trier either. Unorthodox, he trades the legspinner's proverbial yo-yo for a spear, as the ball hacks through the air rather than hanging in it, then comes off the pitch with a kick rather than a kink.
Everyone remembers his perfect 10 in Delhi, but also memorable is his 6 for 71 on a flat pitch at Multan that helped India win a Test in Pakistan for the first time, and his hauls of 24 wickets in Australia in 2003-04, and the recent 23 wickets against West Indies in four Tests, including a match haul of 7 for 110 in the last Test in Jamaica which helped India achieve their first series win there in 35 years. |
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 Anupam Mittal
Chairman & Managing Director, People Group/Shaadi.com
An MBA in Operations and Strategic Management from the Boston College - USA, Anupam Mittal is the Chairman and Managing Director of People Group - A New Media & Entertainment group, which includes business such as People Interactive (Shaadi.com, Fropper.com, Shaaditimes.com, Astrolife.com and Shaadi Point), People Infocom (MAUJ Telecom & 7007), Pep Management, People Pictures, and Purple Media.
Anupam is an entrepreneur and business strategist with cross-functional expertise in business & market analysis, marketing and new business development. His sharp business acumen and an eye for detail have seen the group register a 200% growth y-o-y since its inception in 2001.
Anupam has pioneered the launch of some really unique businesses and led them to success. Anupam started Shaadi.com, an online Matrimonial Services and Matchmaking business, which is today the most recognizable matrimonial brand on the Internet, and the first business of its kind anywhere in the world. Similarly Fropper.com, a friendship and social networking site and MAUJ, a wireless content, applications and services Company have been initiated by Anupam and have quickly grown to become leading names in their segment.
The group currently employs over 400 people and is headquartered in Mumbai. In addition to 7 regional offices in India, People Group has offices and operations in UAE, UK and USA.
Prior to founding People Group, Anupam, was associated with Microstrategy Inc., a NASDAQ listed company and global vendor of intelligent e-business software and incubator of revolutionary Internet businesses. During his tenure with Microstrategy, he initiated, developed and managed corporate level partnerships in wireless, content, consulting and financial industries. He is a recognized name in Silicon Valley and New York due to his accomplishments at MicroStrategy Inc. Other organizations that he has been associated with include Lotus Corp - IBM Cambridge (USA), Keane Inc., Boston (USA) and Gopal Fabric Mills, Mumbai (India).
Anupam Mittal was voted as one of the 25 people to watch out for in 2005 by ‘The Week’ Magazine. He has also been voted as one of the 100 most influential NRIs in the USA. A frequent speaker at conferences and seminars Anupam is a prominent thought leader in India for the entertainment, media and IT industries. Anupam has recently been appointed as the Chairman of The Governing Council of Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
People Group recently secured a total investment of $18mn through leading venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital and Intel Capital, which will be utilised for further business expansion and acquisitions. Some recent accomplishments of People Interactive are – Being awarded the CNBC –TV 18’s Emerging India Award for being the most promising SME in the ICE (Information Technology, Communication & Entertainment) and ITeS (IT enabled Services) category. People Interactive has also been awarded with Deloitte Fast 50 India Award and the Deloitte Fast 500 Asia-Pacific Award. The company has also bagged the Franchisor of the Year Award (Consumer services Segment) for its business unit Shaadi Point. |
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 Bob Muglia
Senior Vice President, Microsoft Corporation
Bob Muglia is Senior Vice President of the Server and Tools Business (STB), a part of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft. STB is chartered to deliver Microsoft’s unique vision for information technology professionals and developers: ""Empower People across the IT Lifecycle through Integrated Software Innovation."" As STB business leader, Muglia is responsible for developing and marketing Microsoft’s infrastructure and developer software. This integrated set of products provides the foundation for IT operations, security, application development and integration. This portfolio includes Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center management products and the Forefront line of business security products.
Muglia is a member of Microsoft’s Senior Leadership Team (which includes Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer) that is responsible for shaping the company’s business and technology strategy.
Since joining Microsoft in January 1988, Muglia has served in a variety of positions, including managing the development of the MSN network of Internet services and Microsoft Office family of business productivity applications, Windows Server applications, and productivity appliances such as Pocket PCs, eBooks and Tablet PCs. In addition, Muglia helped to bring together the Visual Studio family of developer tools and drive the Win32 API, customer requirements and product specification for the Microsoft Windows NT operating system.
Before joining Microsoft, Muglia was a development manager at ROLM Co. Muglia holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Michigan. |
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 Dax Pandhi
CEO, Nukeation Studios
Dax Pandhi is the Founder and CEO of Nukeation Studios, a technology/design studio. He has over a decade of experience with graphics and software technologies.
Dax has been awarded multiple awards for excellence in web design by the International Association of Web Masters and Developers. As a UX specialist, he is currently dedicated to leveraging the new Windows Vista™ wave of technologies - especially Windows Presentation Foundation - to help clients create the next generation of applications. He also maintains a blog at http://www.naesthetic.com. |
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 Deepak Gulati
Developer Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
Deepak works as a developer evangelist at Microsoft and believes firmly in brevity being the soul of wit. He is extremely excited about the Microsoft technologies due for release over next 12 months specifically Windows Presentation Foundation.
In his (exceedingly rare) free time he likes to travel with his camera and occasionally posts the results on his photoblog. |
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 Gurpreet S Pall
Director, Microsoft Corporation
Gurpreet S. Pall is currently a Director of Windows Live Platform and Services at Microsoft’s India Development Center in Hyderabad. Prior to his current role he has held leadership positions at Microsoft Corp. USA as Sr. Director of Architecture Strategy with Developer and Platform Evangelism, and Product Unit Manager in the Windows Engineering group responsible for incubating Microsoft Systems Architecture (MSA) and related infrastructure solutions & programs. Over the 16+ year career at Microsoft he has delivered several key products and solutions to the Microsoft’s customers, partners and internal operations. He has played key roles in the planning and delivery of products such as Microsoft Excel, Office and solutions in the areas sales force automation and empowerment, knowledge management and IT services. He holds a B-Com (Honors) Degree from St. Xavier’s College Kolkata, and a Masters of Management degree from Willamette University, Salem, Oregon. |
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 Janakiram MSV
Developer Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
Janakiram MSV is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft India. He started his career with FoxPro development and subsequently moved to Visual Basic and the .NET platforms. He has been a trainer, project leader and consultant. He joined Microsoft India as a Technical Specialist where he worked with the corporate and enterprise customers. In his current capacity, he works closely with the developer communities in India, evangelizing and sharing the vision on next generation technologies from Microsoft. He is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) and Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) Charter Member on the .NET platform. Janakiram is passionate about XML Web Services and Mobile Computing. In his free time, he enjoys making wide range of technologies interoperate with each other. |
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 Jaspreet Bindra
Country Manager, MSN India
Jaspreet Bindra is currently the Country Manager of MSN India & Windows Live. Jaspreet is focused on driving consumer use of MSN & Windows Live services, bringing new advertisers online and exploring business opportunities in the booming mobile market focuses. He also oversees the business development & sales and marketing in India.
Prior to joining MSN India, Jaspreet Bindra was with the Tata Group. Jaspreet was a part of the Tata Administrative Services (TAS), and he held senior sales, marketing and general business management positions in the telecom, internet and consumer companies within the group. Over the last year, Jaspreet has been contractually associated as a Principal with Pittiglio, Robin, Todd and McGrath (PRTM), the global management consulting firm. Jaspreet also formerly held the position of Chief Operating Officer with Bazee.com – now known as eBay India.
Jaspreet is known for being a whiz at quizzing and is extremely passionate about it. He has the distinct honor of winning the Brand Equity Quiz thrice, in 1995, 1997 and 2004. Jaspreet particularly enjoys business quizzes and also describes himself as a heavy reader. |
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 Leon Brown
Designer Marketing Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Leon Brown, Designer Marketing Manager for Asia Pacific, India and Greater China, has over 16 years experience working with creative professionals, and brings a wealth of experience and a passion for helping people create and communicate better.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Leon worked at Adobe Systems, Inc. As Senior Product Manager he delivered five versions of the industry leading Adobe Illustrator, as well as Adobe Creative Suite 2, both critical tools for many professionals world-wide. Leon's fluency in Japanese and work developing features for and building markets in Japan and Asia enabled Adobe to maintain its market lead in the critical Japanese market and grow positive relations with its designer communities abroad. Leon also lived eight years in Japan working as audio and video engineer. While in Japan, Leon worked with numerous artists producing CDs, commercial video, mixing for live concerts and planning installations for live houses and performance spaces.
Check out the new Expression Tools Suite below !! Even the packaging is cool !!
http://www.microsoft.com/products /expression/en/default.mspx
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 Neeraj Roy
Managing Director & CEO, Hungama
Managing Director & CEO , Hungama,owners of the two biggest entertainment portals in South Asia, Hungama.com and IndiaFM.com, The # 1 Bollywood portal in the world. Hungama’s Promotions & Entertainment marketing business has engaged over 300 brands and created 1000+ interactive and several award winning promotions. Hungama has won over 52 awards in Digital Marketing, including 4 ABBY Golds, PMAA-Singapore and the Globes in Miami. Hungama Mobile, a division of Hungama is the largest aggregator, developer and publisher of BOLLYWOOD content in the world. They hold the worldwide exclusive license to over 35,000 music titles, 3,000+ videos and have worked on over 500 movie games etc. Hungama Mobile has now launched a Bollywood channel with 47 operators in 15 countries including services such as Apple iTunes, MSN Music, AOL Music etc. Neeraj was recently voted amongst the ‘50 Most influential People in Mobile Entertainment’ globally. |
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 Pandurang Nayak
Developer Evangelist Microsoft Corporation
Pandurang works as a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft focusing on next generation web technologies. He is very excited about the Microsoft technologies around Windows Live, ASP.NET AJAX, SharePoint Portal Server and other web technologies that herald the beginning of a new era on the Internet. He has over 8 years of industry experience creating complex web applications and working on several Microsoft technologies.
Apart from technology, his interests include reading, writing, travel and photography. His blog can be found at www.thinkingMS.com/pandurang |
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 Raj Nayak
CEO, NDTV Media
Raj Nayak, a well-known name in the Advertising and Marketing circles in India, is the Chief Executive of NDTV Media Ltd. He is recognized for his vision and foresight. He has over 20 years of experience having started his career with Tata Economic Consultancy services and has worked in various capacities both in the print and electronic medium. Raj now leads NDTV Media, India’s best-known and most respected full service Media Marketing and Consulting Company. It has offices spread across 9 cities.
Prior to joining NDTV Media, Raj was the Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing for the STAR TV Group where he was responsible for strategizing, packaging and marketing of all STAR TV channels and for the advertising revenue of the entire group. He was a key member of the STAR TV India Management Committee and was also on the Board of Vijay TV and Indya.com. During his tenure at Star TV, he was handling over 8 channels in different genres, with more than 175 people reporting to him, helping generate revenues to the tune of USD 175 million annually. He can be credited with changing the way sports television was marketed in India. He set new benchmarks with the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1999 and also played a key role in turning around the fortunes of ESPN Star Sports in India.
Raj brings with him a proven track record of revenue generation and an exceptional understanding of the media industry. He is an astute and savvy sales person and his greatest strength lies in his ability to create long-lasting relationships with agencies, clients and the talent fraternity. His ability to mingle with ease across levels and across industries and be accepted by them is what makes him unique! Raj was recently elected as Vice President for International Advertising Association (IAA) – India Chapter. |
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 Rajnikant Patel
Managing Director & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange
Rajnikant Patel is the Managing Director and CEO of the Bombay Stock Exchange - the oldest Stock Exchange in Asia. In March 2001 when banker Rajnikant Patel accepted the offer to head the Bombay Stock Exchange’s surveillance division, his friends discouraged him. The BSE, Asia’s oldest stock exchange, was trying to recover from the ‘second scam’ and the surveillance division itself was under watch. Friends warned him of an indelible blot in an otherwise impressive career. A die-hard biker, Patel responded that since he had switched track, there was no turning back.
Four years and a few months later, when he is being redesignated as the managing director and CEO of BSE in a new, corporate avatar, Patel says nothing has changed; he is revving up to go faster. |
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 Tarun Gulati
GM-DPE, Microsoft Corporation
Tarun Gulati is the General Manager for Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) at Microsoft India and a part of the India Leadership Team. In this role, Tarun is responsible for spearheading Microsoft India’s efforts to foster the Indian software ecosystem through deep strategic engagements with developers, IT professionals, students, academia and software and services organizations. His strategic goal is to drive increased developer & IT Professional satisfaction, accelerate broad market adoption of Microsoft technologies and win the enterprise development platform.
Prior to this role, Tarun was based in Microsoft US where he was General Manager - National Platform Evangelism and Technical Sales. In this role, he led a community of 1400 technical and specialist people supporting a $10 billion revenue stream and drove the company’s DPE, Specialist Team Unit (STU), Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) and security initiative s. During his tenure in Microsoft’s largest subsidiary, Tarun has done commendable work to improve the overall efficiencies within the developer, IT Pro and partner communities - leveraging synergies in leadership development, training, readiness, systems, and processes.
Before joining Microsoft in 2001, Tarun worked with Aditi Technologies as Vice President – Services and helped bootstrap the company into a key global System Integrator (SI). During his tenure with Aditi Technologies, he was responsible for running the sales, marketing and technical delivery operations in Asia, Europe and USA and managed a team of over 350 people. Tarun was instrumental in helping the company grow its operations and had full responsibility for the $30 million global division offering high-end consulting services.
Tarun has over 10 years of experience in the industry. Prior to Aditi Technologies, he was with Sheraton Hotels for over eight years. While with Sheraton Hotels, he was adjudged ‘Front Office Manager of the Year 1994’, one of the hotel industry’s most coveted awards.
Tarun completed his Master and Bachelor of Arts from University of Bombay, Honors in Systems Management from NIIT and followed by an Executive MBA from University of Washington, USA. Tarun & his wife Ashmita currently reside in Mumbai with their two daughters Nikita and Esha. During his free time, Tarun enjoys sports and likes running, swimming and playing squash. |
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Thursday, November 02, 2006
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Nukeation at IndiMIX'06 - 09 Nov @ MumbaiIf you don't already know, MIX'06 is coming to India in the form of IndiMIX'06 (http://www.indimix06.com). The keynote will be given by Steve Ballmer.
I've been given the honor of being on the same stage as Steve B. I'm going to be doing a piece on .NET Framework 3.0 - essentially about Windows Presentation Foundation and the Designer / Developer work process. I'll be co-presenting the demo with some really cool people.
IndiMIX'06 will be held at the National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA), Nariman Point, Mumbai. It's a free public event and you can register for it at the official website. If you're not able to come to Mumbai, or if the event is sold out you can watch the live webcast. Register for either at the official site.
My presentation will be from 2:00pm to 3:15pm (local time, +5:30GMT).
For more info, visit http://www.indimix06.com 
Friday, October 20, 2006
Blog v8.3 is now activeThe last blog skin I made was kind of weird and had some technical and usability problems as well. I decided to drop the hi-tech look and go with a simple design inspired by Japanese aesthetics and animé. So hop out the RSS reader and head on over to http://www.naesthetic.com
Thursday, October 19, 2006
The Designer Angle - uncharted territory for Microsoft?I recently was at the Microsoft R&D Campus at Hyderabad (India) and me and a UX designer interning at Microsoft were having a discussion with Kevin D'Souza, an evangelist for Live. The event of the day was Expression, and so was the topic we were discussing. This was just an informal discussion before the event. I was invited as an outside expert (imagine that!) and they wanted to know my opinion about Expression and UX and everything. Suddenly the topic of designers and developers came up. I told Kevin that, in my opinion Microsoft will need to do some work to warm up to the designer community. Not because of competing technologies or anything - but because designers are a whole freakin' new species for MS to handle. Developers - despite their independent egos - know how to work together. Designers can be a bit cranky that way. And that's just ONE example of the whole deal. Kevin's interested to know more, so I give him an example - one I live with every day and night: I tell him that when you tell a dev that you want an app that does this and this and this and talk to a web service at your extranet, he (and maybe his team) will find some paper or a whiteboard, throw around some ideas and decide which objects or libraries to create to get the job done. (I know its an over simplification, just bear with me) Now, you tell the DESIGNER that you want an app that does this and this and this and talk to a web service at your extranet, he (quite possibly without a team) will find some paper or fire up Photoshop or even Visual Studio or ExprID itself and start designing the UI first and THEN think of the code. As soon as I say this, the Microsoft intern goes "That's how you do it". And he wasn't being sarcastic or clever. He was honestly saying that. Point made.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Expression Design Jamboree - HyderabadI'll be presenting an almost hour-long presentation on Microsoft Expression at the Expression Design Jamboree, a special event for Designers (and Developers) which will be held at the Microsoft Campus at Gachibowli, Hyderabad (India). The event is at 5pm on 6th October. Registration is still open. You can register for free by email designercommunity@hotmail.com or by calling (+91) 40-65192133.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
The Designer/Developer Workflow in Windows Presentation FoundationWorking with a designer for your application is a concept many developers find a bit new. A lot of developers we have been working with have struggled with different methods for working with us to design their app in WPF. So we wrote this little guide that explains one of the most efficient and effective methods of working with a designer or design studio to skin your WPF app.
Anyone can use this simple method. It allows the designer to work separately from the developer(s) in Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer or any other XAML editor. The developers work in Visual Studio (using "ORCAS" / "Cider") or ExprID and create forms as usual. The application would look just like any other Windows application. When the designer is finished with the styles, he or she gives the devs the file, they reference it in the project, compile, and voila!
You can read about the process, including source code, in detail in this file below:
 PDF File (452K)
NOTE: This document is a draft version. Ignore any lingual or conceptual errors. The code, however, is error free.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Designers and Developers wanted for high-profile projects at Nukeation StudiosNukeation Studios has divided right into the thick of WPF since the first bits were released. We were the first company to offer WPF consulting services on the Internet. Over the last year we have made a lot of progress in WPF and are ready to offer even more services and products to the industry - all based around WPF and .NET 3.0.
We are looking for freelancers for the following roles:
- Windows Presentation Foundation Designer
- Windows Presentation Foundation Developer (C# or VB)
Intermediate knowledge of Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer is a must. Basic knowledge of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 is also required. For WPF Designer position, extensive knowledge and experience with CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator, and Corel PhotoPaint or Adobe Photoshop, is a must.
Geographic location irrelevant. You will be expected to work via the Internet. Professional experience is not a requirement, but is a plus. We offer some of the finest perks and the opportunity to work on some seriously high-profile projects. If you're really good, you can also expect a long-term relationship with us.
Please submit your résumé with a link (do not attach!) to at least one sample (compiled EXE only, no source required) of work done in WPF to dax [at] nukeation [dot] com. Please make the subject of the email "WPF Designer" or "WPF Developer" as appropriate.
There is no deadline, but positions are limited.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
nAesthetic 2.0I'm expecting a rush on my blog soon - very soon. So I went ahead and made the blog interface more user-friendly. As usual, people reading this via RSS feeds are encouraged to visit http://www.naesthetic.com and check out the new UX.
There are some big, big, big things in the works. Stay tuned. ;)
Saturday, September 23, 2006
How to use Aero Glass in your WPF applicationsAero Glass
Just about everyone making (or thinking of making) an application for Windows Vista wants to try out the cool new Aero User Experience. Software such as Windows Media Player, Windows Calendar, and the Windows Sidebar really show off the Aero glass look.
While overusing the glass bit is a certain possibility (and a probability), using it judiciously can seriously help spice up your app. A few things to keep in mind when using Aero Glass:
- Avoid a full glass window. This creates performance as well as usability issues.
- Use full glass windows only for non-resizable, non-maximizing windows.
- The glass portions of the window should always allow the entire window to be dragged.
- When designing the window, keep in mind what it will look like in a pre-Vista OS – i.e., without glass. Always have a non-Glass look ready to fall back on if Aero is disabled or if the app is run on an older Windows.
This exercise will require a good GPU (128MB AGP recommended).
Thanks to Adam Nathan for the original code!
The Code
Create a new code file and add the following code:
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Animation;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Windows.Interop;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace AeroGlassExample
{
public class GlassHelper
{
struct MARGINS
{
public MARGINS(Thickness t)
{
Left = (int)t.Left;
Right = (int)t.Right;
Top = (int)t.Top;
Bottom = (int)t.Bottom;
}
public int Left;
public int Right;
public int Top;
public int Bottom;
}
[DllImport("dwmapi.dll", PreserveSig = false)]
static extern void DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea(IntPtr hwnd, ref MARGINS margins);
[DllImport("dwmapi.dll", PreserveSig = false)]
static extern bool DwmIsCompositionEnabled();
public static bool ExtendGlassFrame(Window window, Thickness margin)
{
if (!DwmIsCompositionEnabled())
return false;
IntPtr hwnd = new WindowInteropHelper(window).Handle;
if (hwnd == IntPtr.Zero)
throw new InvalidOperationException("The Window must be shown before extending glass.");
// Set the background to transparent from both the WPF and Win32 perspectives
SolidColorBrush background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Red);
background.Opacity = 0.5;
window.Background = Brushes.Transparent;
HwndSource.FromHwnd(hwnd).CompositionTarget.BackgroundColor = Colors.Transparent;
MARGINS margins = new MARGINS(margin);
DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea(hwnd, ref margins);
return true;
}
}
}
In your Window.xaml file, make the DocumentRoot object's Background to NULL then just insert the following code (marked in bold) in the codebehind file:
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
namespace AeroGlassExample
{
/// <summary>
/// Interaction logic for Window1.xaml
/// </summary>
public partial class Window1 : System.Windows.Window
{
private bool neverRendered = true;
public Window1()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.SourceInitialized += new EventHandler(Window1_SourceInitialized);
}
void Window1_SourceInitialized(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
GlassHelper.ExtendGlassFrame(this, new Thickness(-1));
}
protected override void OnContentRendered(EventArgs e)
{
if (this.neverRendered)
{
// The window takes the size of its content because SizeToContent
// is set to WidthAndHeight in the markup. We then allow
// it to be set by the user, and have the content take the size
// of the window.
this.SizeToContent = SizeToContent.Manual;
FrameworkElement root = this.Content as FrameworkElement;
if (root != null)
{
root.Width = double.NaN;
root.Height = double.NaN;
}
this.neverRendered = false;
}
base.OnContentRendered(e);
}
}
}
You will get the following result:
If you replace the thickness(-1) with thickness(5,70,5,42) you get something like this:
You can download the full code below. It requires Windows Vista RC1 or later, .NET Framework 3.0 (RC1), and Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer September CTP.
AeroGlassExample.zip (14.43 KB)
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Perplex: Coming Soon
I've tried often to keep a personal website. First there was this unmentionable, horrible website (my first actually! back in the day you made a web page - not a web site), then long years later, there was AFTER-IMAGES (art), then PIXELATED FOCUS (photography), then recently DIGITAL EXILE (art + photography).
In this long tradition the newest generation shall soon be unveiled - PERPLEX. The site will no longer be nomadic but be anchored to http://dax.nukeation.com where it shall stay until the end of time.
Perplex? That's a weird name.
Oh, not really. If you personally know me, you may know that I live by the motto: "the purpose of my life is to confuse as many people as possible". And I always do. I'm often confused myself.
This name was also chosen to reflect the look on the viewer's face when seeing my work or words.
Subscribe to the new RSS feed (a category of this very blog) for updates to my photography and art collections. The site will be online soon enough.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
The Code Veterans ReunionLt. Cmdr. D. Code: "Aye, laddie, when we cohded back in the dayh, we haid no stryctyrs. We just payssed 'em vayriabuls one by one." Gen. A. Bugbyte: "vayriabuls? you had vayriabuls? Back in my day we didn't even have 1's and 0's, we just had 1. (we had to simulate 0)"
Copyright � 2005-2007 Dax Pandhi. All rights reserved.
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