If you are also using Supervisor to monitor and heal your long running Python projects and observed that output of your program is not being logged to stdout_logfile, it is because Python print statement does not automatically flush output to STDOUT. One solution is using sys.stdout.flush() frequently to flush the output or if you are using Python 3.3, print(msg, flush=True) is another solution. However, a better solution is to run python with -u parameter (unbuffered mode). Read More →

People often wonder about what kind of software projects a company could or should open source. This is a dangerous decision for a company, due to the risk of losing strategic position against competitors. As someone working at a company, here is what you can open source from your work. Read More →

Lately, I’ve been reading Joshua Becker’s book Simplify about minimalist lifestyle. It’s a very short book, but hey, it has to be, this is minimalism!

This is an inspiring book about removing clutter and stuff you don’t actually need from your life and enjoy your life –not the things. Here are my key takeaways from the book:

• Which you hold, holds you. Things you own actually begin to own you after some time. You clean them, organize them, buy them, sell them etc. More you own, the more time they rob from your lives.
• “There are things more you should value more than possessions –God, family, relationships, character etc.”
• Give things away or sell them if you are not really using. You won’t lose that much.
• Spend money on life experiences than possessions.

Read More →

iTunes has a nice public music search API which offers 30-second previews and detailed information about music albums and tracks. However I could not play these previews on Android or Chrome browser —but it was playing perfectly in iOS apps and OS X Safari browser. (See sample audio here.) With the help of a little bit of packet capturing I found out the reason why iTunes previews cannot be played outside of iOS and OS X. Read More →

Yaay! Happy birthday pal. It all started with a handmade blog written in classic ASP. Read More →

This weekend I decided to practice my iOS skills with a simple utility app. The TV satellite receiver box in our home Vu+ Duo runs on Linux and it has an API to simulate remote control, change channels, set volume, list channels etc. After connecting to the device over WiFi local area network, it can be used to “zap” channels instantly or controlling device with a virtual remote. So I put these down in an app and submitted to App Store today for free. Read More →

Some exciting news to share today! October 1st will be my first day at Microsoft Windows Azure. This is going to be my first full-time job. I am joining the same team which I had an internship last year. My position is software development engineer in test and my team produces end-to-end automated testing systems for Azure cloud services. I’ll be moving to Redmond, WA (where Microsoft headquarters is located) in Seattle area. Read More →

iPhone 5 is announced today with a bigger 4-inch screen resolution today. It corresponds to 1136 x 640 px. Compared to old 960 x 640 px resolution, the new screen is 176 px wider. Apple announced that old applications in the App Store will still run at their original (old) size and will be centered on the screen. That means there will be 88 px empty (black) spaces at the end and at the bottom. Read More →