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Published by Zaheer

Even with many years of experience with programming in Java one cannot claim that he or she has mastered the language. What I found out with experience is that unless your job offers you diverse problems to solve, you are more likely to work on similar projects and hence may end up using the exact features of the language. And this leads to being forgetful about the minute and basic aspects of the language. To stay up-to-date with the latest developments in any area it is vital that you regularly read relevant magazines, books, and/or subscribe to the blogs. It is also important that you test your knowledge of the subject by taking quizzes once in a while. A good quiz will make you think about the subject broadly and will also point out your weak points. This will not only help you think about what you have learned over the years but it will also tell you the aspects of the subject that you need to improve on. For Java developers who would like to check their knowledge of their beloved programming language Read more…

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1 Comment . May 13, 2008
Filed under: Java
Tags: Better Programmer, Java BlackBelt, Quiz

Published by Zaheer

OK developers here is your next software project. Create a web page that will display Homer Simpson’s image on the screen. Too easy for you? Here is the catch. You cannot use any image. Yes that is correct you will need to draw Simpson’s image without using any graphics. Sounds impossible? If  you think this cannot be done  check out what Roman Cortes did with just the CSS.

CSS Simpson

Isn’t that amazing. It is awesome how some developers can use their skills to achieve what many might consider impossible.

Now do you think you can deliver the project in two weeks? 

The moral here is that for software developers there is nothing impossible. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Always maintain the ‘Can do’ attitude.

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Post a comment . May 09, 2008
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: CSS, Homer, Simpson

Published by Zaheer

Twitter provides an excellent platform to bloggers to promote their blogs. Because of its popularity several third-party tools and services were created to help Tweeter users. Following is a list of the tools and services that I think make Twitter lot more easier and fun to use.

Read more…

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2 Comments . Apr 28, 2008
Filed under: Blogging

Published by Zaheer

To me the key to productivity lies in simplicity and avoiding distraction.
I am glad that last month I found out about Dark Room at DoshDosh.com.
Dark Room is a no-frill, minimalistic full-screen text editor. Its main purpose is to let you focus on your writing and kill all distractions that come with other full-featured editors. Read more…

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Post a comment . Apr 21, 2008
Filed under: Blogging

Published by Zaheer

Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to see my Alexa rank became145,792. The night before it was some where in 233,00 range. My first thought was something is not right. So I went to Alexa.com and found out that they have changed their ranking system. And that new system is the cause of this new rating. Instead of ranking a website based only on the visits by the visitors who have Alexa toolbar installed, Alexa is now using “other sources” to determine website rank.

Alexa won’t provide any details on those other sources but this new ranking system will certainly helpnon-tech websites and I think the new ranking system will give a more accurate rank. Honestly, the older ranking system was skewed towards tech-heavy websites where most visitors would have the alexa toolbar installed.

So how did this new ranking system affect your Alexa rank? Do you even care about Alexa ranking at all?

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1 Comment . Apr 18, 2008
Filed under: Blogging
Tags: Alexa, rank

Published by Zaheer

Regular expressions provide a powerful and flexible way to search for phrases or characters but they are also confusing and many developers find them quite daunting. If you have been reluctant to learn regular expressions because of their apparent complexity, fear no more. Read more…

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Post a comment . Apr 14, 2008
Filed under: Best Sites
Tags: RegEx, regexr, regular expressions

Published by Zaheer

In Java you can find maximum or minimum value in a numeric array by looping through the array. Here is the code to do that.

public static int getMaxValue(int[] numbers){
  int maxValue = numbers[0];
  for(int i=1;i < numbers.length;i++){
    if(numbers[i] > maxValue){
	  maxValue = numbers[i];
	}
  }
  return maxValue;
}

public static int getMinValue(int[] numbers){
  int minValue = numbers[0];
  for(int i=1;i<numbers.length;i++){
    if(numbers[i] < minValue){
	  minValue = numbers[i];
	}
  }
  return minValue;
}

These are very straight forward methods to get maximum or minimum value of an array but there is a more cleaner way to do this. Read more…

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1 Comment . Apr 13, 2008
Filed under: Java
Tags: Array, Java, maximum, minimum

Published by Zaheer

Reading properties file in Java is much easier than you might have thought. Following example illustrates one simple way of reading properties from a properties file.

Let’s say we need to read from myConfig.properties file.
The properties file has following entries.

Directory = C:/prodFiles/
NumberOfFiles = 25
Extension = java
Here is the class to read the values of these keys.

import java.util.Properties;
import java.io.*;
   public class ReadValues{
	private static final String PROP_FILE="myConfig.properties";
	public void readPropertiesFile(){
       try{
		InputStream is = ReadValues.class.getResourceAsStream(PROP_FILE);
		Properties prop = new Properties();
        prop.load(is);
		String directory = prop.getProperty("Directory");
        String numberOfFiles = prop.getProperty("NumberOfFiles");
		String  fileExtension = prop.getProperty("Extension");
        is.close();

	  /* code to use values read from the file*/
       }catch(Exception e){
         System.out.println("Failed to read from " + PROP_FILE + " file.");
       }
   }
  }

The code is quite simple and self explanatory. Let me know if you have any questions.

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2 Comments . Apr 08, 2008
Filed under: Java
Tags: Java

Published by Zaheer

Want to find out how much does your blog worth? Just go to DNScoop.com and get your answer. DNScoop.com estimates the dollar value of an established domain name. Its estimation is based on several factors including

• Links pointing to the domain
• Popularity of the domain
• Age of the domain
• Pagerank of the domain
• Traffic to the domain

Although the estimated value is just that, an estimate, it can give you a good indicator of how much to expect if you sell your domain. This tool can also be used to estimate the price of established domain name you are interested in buying before you make an offer. Think of it as domain name’s blue book (like Kelly’s Blue book).
So go ahead and check your blog or URL’s worth.
Share with us what you think of this tool.

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Post a comment . Apr 02, 2008
Filed under: Blogging

Published by Zaheer

Today I stumbled upon an excellent WordPress plugin. It is called CommentLuv. This plugin rewards the visitors who leave comments on your posts with backlinks to their recent posts. This is an excellent way to encourage your visitors to leave comments on your post. It is a win-win situation for you and the visitors. You get a more engaged visitors and they get the chance to promote their latest posts and get a deep link to their posts.

The plugin is very easy to use. Just download the zip file, extract and upload the plugin file to your wp-content/plugins directory, and activate the plugin.
Once the plugin is activated , it adds a check box with following text beneath the comment text box on each post:

“Enable CommentLuv which will try and get your last blog post, please be patient while it finds it for you.”

The checkbox is selected by default. If the commentator enables the CommentLuv the plugin will visit the feed of the comment author and inserts a link to his/her last post under the comment. Really terrific!

Try it now by leaving a comment below.

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4 Comments . Mar 25, 2008
Filed under: Blogging
Tags: commentluv, plugin