The hunting season is open

Two Phone interviews
One Personal lined up
Another phone interview scheduled

Hmmmm
So this is how it is...

Appearing for an interview after a gap of 6 years was a bit un-nerving
The first one with TA could have gone much better if that had not been my first interview

Anyways- it is what it is

Second one went much better and I am now scheduled for a personal interview next week

I am not sure if I am going to take the offer if it ever comes- but at this point -= I want as much exposure to interviews as possible so i can smoothen up my rough edges

Hi I am looking for an open positon. You got any for me ?

So - here it goes...
I have taken the plunge

Sent my resume across to handful of people and will be sending to more this weekend

Met a recruiter in person as well
I think I am going to decline further requests for such meetings in person- they consume way too much time- Lets see...

Sigh I have already started fantasizing how I will break the news to my Manager
oh boy. I know this is kiddish- but somehow propels me

Hibernate - a way of life

So I started reading this book- Hibernate in Action.
One of the things that hit me was- that Hibernate is not a persistence API alone
Its a way of life...
If you are simply planning to plug out your JDBC API and plug in instead Hibernate- you will not be able to get the full force out of it

( Of course in any re-factoring project- compromises are made to see what can be done and achieved within the boundaries of other constraints.)

What you really need to do is- move away from thinking in terms of tuples and data sets- and instead think more in terms of objects...

Given the fact most of the enterprise applications are coded in Object oriented languages- it shouldn't difficult

But the fact is that most designs are strongly dominated by the Database layer and user interface
These two ends are start- all and end-all for most workflows
It takes great effort and discipline to make sure that these concerns don't leak...

Anyway- its a nice book and am on to the fourth chapter tomorrow
Yay !!!

Putting the head where the patterns are...

So I needed to design an enhancement to the project I work on
I gleefully rubbed my hands and smirked- Now is the time when I put in all the patterns I learnt in the last 10 days or so- going through the Head First book

I decided to use Abstract Factory Pattern- keeping in mind the OOP principles I learnt
This pattern was a good fit.

Had I not read this book- I would have implemented this is a very different way
Its almost difficult to imagine how would I have done it....

But - it was not a easy exercise
Patterns are like guides
They show you the way- but then they offer you multiple paths
You get to choose what path to pick and how well you use it.

All said and done- I am pretty pleased with myself how it unfolded

InfoQ and eBay

yesterday I saw Randy Shoup's interview on InfoQ (http://www.infoq.com/presentations/shoup-ebay-architectural-principles)

Very intresting...
And I couldn't help compare our architeture with their's

And I started wondering could we incorporate some of their principals into our design?
We already have some- we too acknowledge the power of asynchronous processing
Though I feel we have not gone as far as we should\could have...

Our objects are too tightly coupled.

Another thing I liked what Randy said was about shorter transactions

I think there is great wisdom in that principle- it gives you lots of flexibility on how you can handle situations, faster performance,quicker response to all objects,fewer wait time all over

InfoQ seems to be a nice hangout- I intend to visit that place more often

Design Patterns: Proxy

So today I learnt the Proxy pattern
Proxy pattern is like a personal assistant of a Hollywood star.

Provides access.
Serves as a body guard
Acts likes a star- you think you are talking to the star while you are of course not

Just couple of more chapters to go before I can put this book down (Head First- Design Patterns)

I already have an idea- which book I want to read next...

Confession

I wish I had read this book- Head First Design Patterns before
In fact I now wonder how many books I should have already read before

I think I would have done a much better job at my current project if I had read about these patterns and whatever else I have missed...

Anyway...I will see what I can fix now
I plan to redesign few objects- hopefully that will help.