Talents Come In Many Different Combinations

"Talents come in many different combinations...

Organizations must be designed around the people available, not people fitted into pure-therory organizations.

...the man with strong management talent and strong technical talent is rarely found. Thinkers are rare; doers are rarer; and thinker-doers are rarest."
(emphasis mine)

-Why Did the Tower of Babel Fail?, p80, The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks

Don't Forget The Role Of Architect (Software)

"The architect of a system, like the architect of a building, is the user's agent. It is his job to bring professional and technical knowledge to bear in the unalloyed interest of the user, as opposed to the interests of the salesman, the fabricator, etc.

... the architect sits at the focus of forces which he must ultimately resolve in the user's interest. If a system is to have conceptual integrity, someone needs to control the concepts. That is an aristocracy that needs no apology."
(emphasis mine)

-Aristocracy, Democracy and System Design, p45, The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks`

With WhatsApp, Aren't BlackBerry Messenger And Apple's iMessage Redundant?

Thankfully with the advent of apps like WhatsApp, there is not much incentive left for newcomers to adopt a particular ecosystem, or for old-timers to jump to a new system- for messaging services alone. Of course, a ton of factors are at play like personal preference, quality and quantity in app store, budget etc.

Then, each ecosystem has its forte:

• For Nokia, it's the maps and navigation in my opinion.
• For iOS, the app store and the quality and delight in using the devices, plus being a status symbol.
• For Blackberry, I guess the business tools.

Personally, I have used Nokia from young age, and now so much data (detailed contacts, calendar entries etc) is in it that I'm finding difficult to move to Android, or iPhone for lack of apps in Nokia Store.

Regarding Blackberry I'm confused- I mean is paying a fixed sum per month worth it, that's what I need to research more.

W3Schools.com - To-The-Point Tutorials On Web Technologies

I would like to thank w3schools.com for their well thought-out tutorials on web technologies like HTML, CSS etc.

After passing out from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar I had to choose a line. With guidance from of my best friends, I chose PHP and related technologies. W3Schools.com was one of the first sites I found and it satisfied my goals beautifully.

I recommend this site if you want to learn the syntax, brush up your concepts or want to quickly go through a language.

Rating: 4/5 Link: w3schools.com

You Cannot Program Alone

I used to think that for coding and creating software, all you need is a single motivated and skilled person. Maybe I misinterpreted The The Mythical Man-Month's conceptual integrity theme.

I tested this idea in my final year MCA project. It was a database of cricketers in .NET- CriketersDB.

The things that didn't go well:

• Working at home is without any feeling of formality and rigor. And it requires effort on your part to not get relaxed.
• There is no one to talk to about your project during lunches and breaks- share your achievements, doubts and concerns.
• Online resources like Google, StackOverflow etc are helpful, but when you are stuck on a point for more than one day, despair can set in.
• You can learn only as much is written in the book/site.

There are no advantages of trying to work solo, no matter how seductive it is and how confident you feel.

You may be interested in the video The Myth of the Genius Programmer at Google I/O 2009 and also A Rebuttal to The Myth of the Genius Programmer to keep things in perspective.