Thought Line

This is official blog for ClayFish. The entries are written by Alok Shukla unless stated otherwise. May our stay on Earth be useful.

[aclayfish]

Why freelancing?

I’ve worked as a software engineer for the last 3+ years, and the projects I’ve been involved in have ranged from simple desktop applications to complex web applications used by thousands of users every day. Most of the applications that I’ve worked on are still in use today, by companies, organizations and individuals. Whenever I’ve worked in a team with other engineers, I’ve always been one of the people that have worked the hardest, and who were responsible for making sure that the applications actually worked. That led me to help and collaborate with other people (who had other responsibilities on the same project), so I got to learn various technologies.

I have experience in a myriad of frameworks and technologies, including big data, MongoDB, JSON, Apache Kafka, Apache Storm, Hibernate, SQL, Spring framework, AngularJS, jQuery, Bootstrap, HTML5, CSS etc and mobile apps, iOS and Android.

From past 6 months, I have been involved with a lot of freelance work on different kinds of projects. I’ve researched a lot of sites that enable freelancers to find work (such as Upwork, freelancer), and I’ve worked on a few projects there. Needless to say, it’s very difficult to find an interesting project at those sites, because most of the work that is posted there is for short-term easy-to-do tasks that aren’t paid well. However, I’ve been lucky enough to catch an occasional good project there, and I believe that I’ve done well on all of them (I enjoy 100% Job success and 5-star rating). I really like freelance work, because of three things: no need to travel to work, you can get a decent pay if you’re doing your job correctly, and you get to work on different projects so you learn a lot of new things, and to top it all, I have a nice home-office.

I am a full-time freelancer since last 6 months and now I have heard about TopTal. At first I thought that it's just another freelancing website, but after reading a few blogs, I realized that it's only for the top 3%. So, it gets work from the most reputed clients.

Another thing which separates toptal from other freelancing websites is that it provides long term work. It's also the reason I don’t like freelance platforms such as Upwork (formaerly oDesk+Elance) is that it’s hard to find long-term projects for a good salary there. Most of the projects are low-paying short-term projects, and you have to be on their site all the time, so you can catch and apply quickly for the occasional good project that is posted there. That is very time consuming. TopTal changes that.

I have applied for joining Software engineers community and first skype interview is scheduled soon. Wish me luck.

Written by Alok Shukla

[aclayfish]

Please do vote-up my comment, if you have found any of the posts on this blog helpful.

[aclayfish]

MS Office 2010 and 2013

This blog-post is intended for IITK students to solve their problem of having a proper and stable fully working office suite. Here comes the rescue. People already using MS office 2010 can jump to para 3. Anyone still running Office'03 or '07 is strongly advised to upgrade it to MS office 2010. This is because Office'10 uses better file formatting than earlier versions. It's faster and stable than '07. And newer is better.

To get MS Office 2010, search it on DC++, you will definitely get one. I would personally recommend MS Office 2010 Professional Plus and whether you download 32-bit or 64-bit, it's up to you as both of them are similar at performance.

After installing Office'10, it asks you to activate it. After few days, it shows you pop-up to activate and leaves the Title bar red. You might have got its activator along with its installer or you can download it from here. This does work even if you get updates for MS Office and thus you can get rid of that annoying pop-up of Activation and dark red Title bar. It makes you the owner of the office suite.

Now talking about MS Office 2013, it's still under development but one can get its preview named 'MS Office 2013 Preview' which is available for free from MS office website and comes with Word'13, Excel'13, Powerpoint'13, Access'13, Outlook'13, Publisher'13, Onenote'13 means a fully working advanced office suite. One can get this office suite for 5 PCs from one MS account. You must have to create a Microsoft account for this which is pretty simple. You can use any of your existing E-mail ID to sign-up.

If you found this post useful, please do vote-up my comment.

Click here for the post on Windows 8 for IITK guys.

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This message is intended for a close community and does not have any monetary purpose. EZ-Activator for Office'10 is a 3rd party tool. It is just an advice, user will be responsible for any damage caused by it. MS Office'13 is still under development hence its stability, performance and support is not guaranteed. MS Office'10 is called MS Office 14 and MS Office'13 is called MS Office 15. Author is not associated with MS in anyway.

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[aclayfish]

Windows 8 on MSDN

Well, first of all introducing myself. I am a little tech enthusiast from IITK who likes new software, operating systems be it Android, Ubuntu, iOS, Linux distros, MacOS or Windows. Now Microsoft is all ready with their all new OS Windows 8 which is to be available on or around 25th October of this year. As far as IITK guys are concerned it is already available to them by their MSDN account from 15th August. Yes, MS have provided their product of multimillion project for free for their MSDN and Dream-spark subscribers. IITK people have MSDN accounts. If you don't remember it- Click here for MSDN Log-in page, username is your [email protected] and click on 'Forgot password'.

Now talking about available Windows 8 editions and differences between them. 32-bit or x86 environment is out-of-date so I would be talking only about x86-64 editions. For 64-bit machines there are three Win8 editions available- Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8 Enterprise. Windows RT would only be available pre-installed on some x86 systems from MS.

Differences between Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8 Enterprise-

A detailed feature comparison list is available here on Wikipedia still relevant most used features are mentioned below. Windows 8 is the basic edition of Win8. It provides all of the basic features of Win8 but one might miss following features-

Bit-locker encryption

Windows Media Center

Installing apps from outside Windows app store

Hosting a Remote desktop connection (Only client feature available)

Windows 8 Pro can be called as an edition for a power user. But it lacks Windows Media center, which might be available once Windows 8 gets launched. It is heard that MS is going to sale Media center as an app that is why it is not bundled with OS anymore. Another news is that it might be freely available to Win8 users from launch of Win8 to Jan'13.

Windows 8 Enterprise edition has many features which were never available in Windows such as Windows to GO, HyperV, App locker and installation of apps is possible from outside the Windows store.

Desktop Gadgets is one thing which people may largely miss. MS has taken Desktop gadgets out from Win8 after Win8 Release Preview so you won't find desktop gadgets in any of the editions mentioned above.

Why to go for Windows 8-

First of all, its all new windows fully re-imagined. Let me make points for to describe it-

It has new Metro UI which will be a new and nice experience after bearing Windows 7 for so long.

Win8 has two types of apps- Metro apps and Desktop Apps. Interacting with Metro apps and UI elements is quite nice.

MS has tried to make it as intuitive as possible. May be it is for touch interface but for many users including me using keyboard-mouse, it has not been so intuitive but right clicking and going to settings through Charms bar almost always provides you a way.

Windows 8 has in built Windows Mail and Calendar, which gets sync with G-Mail and Google Calendar. Remember here in the campus, Outlook and Thunderbird fail to sync with Gmail. People having Android phones might be using calendar extensively.

It has almost all the features and functionality of Win7 + some other eye-catching personalization elements like Lock screen, Start screen etc. Metro UI and apps are pretty beautiful.

For people already using Win8 Developer, Consumer or Release Preview, pre-installed apps in those are just preview they don't function properly. In Win8 or Win 8 Pro you will get them working fully.

You don't have to modify settings of each and every app after re-installing Win8 or when using Win8 on any other device. It uses Microsoft account log-in and can keep your setting and passwords synced and safe. An MS account can be created by any of your existing E-Mail ID.

A few Metro apps to look at-

Games: You won't find a Game Explorer as were in Win7. You need to play those games through your Microsoft account. This app is just to see that how MS have integrated PC gaming and XBox gaming.

Skype: New Metro-style Skype owned by Microsoft

XBox Smartglass: To control your XBox using your Win8 PC

Another note to clarify that any product (in this case Win8 Pro) obtained from MSDN is for always. There is NO EXPIRY DATE. There are some misconception that this Win8 is activated only for 2 years. That thing displayed on MSDN is 24-Months Extended Access Guarantee which means that they'll keep your product key safe for 24-months after purchase so that in case you lose your product key, you can retrieve that from MSDN. This fact is confirmed by CC personnel and one can verify it by hitting command slmgr/xpr on command prompt in Windows. This command displays Expiry date of license.

If MSDN is showing that you are not eligible for making purchase just because you are not a student/employee/staff of IIT Kanpur, send a mail to Mr Narendra Singh Rathor stating the issue and then you will be able to make purchase and download MS softwares from MSDN.

If you found this post useful, please do vote-up my comment.

Click here for post on MS Office 2010 and 2013.

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All the information is collected from various net resources. Reviews about any software is a personal comment. Author is not associated to any related organization or development of software mentioned. This is solely for the purpose of providing information.

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[aclayfish]

@Bluegape

Three weeks of my intern at Bluegape.com have been passed. The venue is New Delhi, which is not very new to me. I arrived here in very early morning on 7th May. Before reaching to bluegape.com, I had to face extreme rush at New Delhi Metro station. It took more than 30 minutes to get a token for Noida sector 18, the nearest metro station to my destination TLabs, TOI office in Noida, sector 16A.

Then somehow being in the auto-balanced condition between a lot of people (I was constantly afraid of being 2D in that metro). I reached to Noida metro station then to TLabs at around 7:30AM. Co-founder of Bluegape, Sahil Baghla came downstairs in half asleep condition to show me the way to TLabs. My working day started from the moment I stepped into TLabs.

Here I saw moments of joy, cheering people by looking at the response of customer on the website and products. We organized and celebrated Mother's day on 13th May as a blast and boosted up our sales. People shared their feelings towards their Moms by beautifully crafted products from Bluegape Design team. Such as this-

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After this We launched specially crafted products for geeks and updated our Geek gallery for Geek Pride Day on 25th May. The products were ubercool. One of them is here.

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Now we are ready for another boom on this Father's Day which falls this year on 17th June. We have already tied up our belts and are ready for a sprint. You can visit our whole Father's Day Gallery and see special Father's day gifts created by Bluegape Design team to show love and gratitude to our Dads-

<Image removed>

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I wish of getting positive response from the customers and also wish to obtain expression of feelings to our real life Superhero- Dad proportionate to our effort put on to provide an awesome way to surprise your Dad.

[sbaghla]

Successful student start-up stories like Bluegape are rare in India and that makes them even more interesting. Bluegape lets you flaunt your attitude through the products you carry. Sahil Baghla shares more about the journey of Bluegape: Tell us in

Bluegape : Let Your Products Carry Your Attitude (via sbaghla)

[aclayfish]

Leisure

        It's 4:45AM. I probably have never called it early morning. For me it's always late night. Sleep is miles away from eyes. Books don't wanna get looked at :). End semester exams are just 8 days away. A lot to do before that but mind, body don't want to do anything thus I have got leisure at this time to do activities such as facebooking, tweeting, blogging etc. Last 3 hrs straight I am listening qawwali of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on Youtube, have changed profile cover twice, thrice. I don't understand why the hell I can't concentrate on much more important stuff and pressing concerns. this is looking to be very personal kind of post.

        Oh I forgot I have got a report to submit and to give presentation tomorrow and still I am enjoying this leisure without any tension on my face. Because of such laziness, carelessness and negligence, I have never been in any serious trouble. I think only this thing is responsible for my attitude towards the things I am responsible too. A few weeks ago I tried to practice Dymaxion sleeping schedule but couldn't follow because of my habit of not leaving bed so easily. Now I feel myself frustrated, depressed, overloaded very easily and frequently. I am desperately thinking a way out of it but till now couldn't have any progress in this regard :(.

        I have dreams but I am not getting up to get them under my feet. I sometime boast that the day I'll stand up and start doing, I'll get them. But I don't know how much retention time would this shapeless soul take before that day. I don't want to spoil my own life as well a lot expectations of my dear ones with it.

[aclayfish]

Situations

I must not be blogging about this. It's seriously and obviously pre-assumed that one must have solved such problems without any trouble. Even many have to face and solve such problems in daily life.

Now my little problem is that I have gone trough a long dwell between the choice of job or higher studies. Now I have made my mind to get a job while I get graduated. By now I have an industrial intern in hand as well an ongoing academic project. I am willing to go for intern in upcoming summer but I would not be able to finish or wrap up my project before summer. And I don't want to screw my terms with the concerned professor as I may have to do my B Tech project under him. This B Tech project is to be done in the semester right after summers.

So I need a safe way to ask professor to give a pause at a nice point so that if needed I can carry it forward as my B Tech project. I know I can figure it out but till then I am just waiting for the right opportunity.

[aclayfish]

The first step

The first step is mostly a trembling attempt to get into a new dimension of possibility. It's my the first post on tumblr. I don't write much but I could not resist to use tumblr by looking at its UI and simplicity.