Friend Feed

I always like innovators simplifying applications and their innovative thoughts. One such is FriendFeed.com. Probably the idea might not be totally new, but I think the site implements the idea very well.

Joe's Goals - http://www.joesgoals.com

I came across this one couple of months ago and got hooked to it. I always keep a journal of running in my own way and also track miles from my Garmin data. But was never impressed so much as I did with Joe's Goals. Awesome!

It's simple to use but a very well implemented thought. You can see my chart in the right panel of my blog, under My Goals. We can set any goals and challenge ourselves. Give it a try!

My list of tools/editors

Read a post online where people were discussing on advantages of different editors and tools, free and paid. Thought of putting together my list here. I use Microsoft Visual Studio for my work and that's my core editor; but besides I like these and use them too:

Tools/Editors

• Notepad++: My personal favorite and the best part, it's free. Light weight, simple, yet powerful. We can get this free from here http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm.
• Amaya: For HTML editing, I like this free tool. Although I use VS, I like this for WYSWYG usage; like I used this to type this blog :-) We can get this from http://www.w3.org/Amaya.
• TextPad: I like this one too but it's a paid one. We can get a free trial version of it from http://www.textpad.com. We can get some good plugins to the programming languages we wish to use.
• Edit+: This is another good one but paid one too. We can get a free trial from http://www.editplus.com.
• Programmer's NotePad: I've used this in the recent past. Don't have a specific reason for not using anymore but can't use all the editors all the time. We can get this from http://www.pnotepad.org.
• Oracle SQL Developer: For Oracle database from Oracle, a free tool. I use Toad also, which is paid, but I think this is really good for all practical developer purposes. We can get this from Oracle SQL Developer download.
  
• Notepad: Of course, standard notepad for the most light weight editing.

I've used few others in the past but for now the list above is in my active memory.

It's 2008 already!

Happy New Year, 2008!

As its said, "Days go slow but years go fast", it's true that when we look back the years just pass by. Looking forward to a great year 2008 and hoping to do more and more.

With holidays behind and a new year ahead, hope everyone to start the year with motivation and inspiration to do more in personal and professional life.

Good luck.

Passion for running

I’m an amateur runner and running has been my passion for almost last 10 years. I had my ups and downs; injuries and losing interests; feel good and feel bad times; so on. I’m no great runner by any means but a moderate runner who has not given up the passion to run despite all the ups and downs. Above everything I wouldn’t be claiming running is my passion without the support of my wife, who challenges me to keep pushing. It took me 10 years to reach a stage where I’m ready to run a Marathon. Yes, I will be running the Richmond Marathon on November 10’Th 2007. It is a long time for anyone to get ready for a Marathon, but the fear of unknown always kept me back from not running one.

Here I’m writing this to encourage and support anyone who has been running for a while and has been pulled back by the fear of a marathon. As I’m nearing my marathon date, I keep thinking why it took me so long before I decided to run the 26.2 miles? Is it that hard for one who is used to running? No, it’s not all that bad; you just have to be methodical with your approach; for which, almost every city has at least one training program each year that puts you on track. Talk to friends who are in same situation as you are. Get to know some one who has done this before. Get inspired from those success stories. Above all, get over the fear of distance and set realistic goals.

It’s the mental strength which is the key to endurance running, I believe. I have few half-marathons and other smaller distance races under my credit; I believe with each race level I built confidence and strength for the next level. Having said all this, I still don’t know how I will do on the race day. But can say that I have built enough confidence that I will and can do well with my goal time (which is to finish under 4 hours, by the way). I don’t mean to sound too optimistic but encouraging self helps me a lot (and I get a lot of it from my wonderful wife though!). I will post how I actually do after the race.

Wishing all those amateur runners out there, like me, good luck and best wishes for your future races!