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I have created a simple Pilot Log Book template on Google Docs. This will allow pilots to track all their flight hours and flight currency (Take Offs, Landings in the last 90 days, Instrument approaches in the last 6 months) etc. It also has columns for PIC X-Try, and is easy to extend to whatever else you want to track., http://links.kunalmittal.com/pilotlogtemplate Pilot Log Book Template for Google Docs Pilot’s Flight Currency Read Full Story

Last week has been bad, so I decided to write about this topic. It is interesting to see numerous vendors selling security & privacy products, constantly send you broiler plate emails and spam messages trying to sell you their products. A few that especially caught my eye, vendors trying to sell me anti-spam tools. So I guess, I need to buy an anti-spam tool to stop spam from the vendor selling the anti-spam tool…. This week I also got a few calls from such vendors. Finally, I decided to... Read Full Story

Today was awesome! I flew for the first time in 4+ months. Not sure why, just laziness I guess. Shiva and I went for an actual IFR flight today – Shiva joined just because I was not current any more. We took off from Hawthorne in our Cessna 172, N7275R. The weather was marginal VFR and we hit the clouds below 2500 feet for about 500 ft or so. Then again at 3200 we were in the clouds. The first approach was the RNAV Z at Long Beach. Due to ATC delays in actual conditions we were sent all... Read Full Story

I am editing a book on Android Web Apps, and the author Damon Oehlman, just introduced me to a tool call “github”. The motto of Git, is “social coding”, it really takes the paradigm of open source. If you think of a typical open source paradigm of collaboration using a tool like SourceForge, think of Git as a Web 2.0 evolution. Read Full Story

Neeta was with her instructor, Bill Goddard. They did 3 touch and goes at Hawthorne airport (KHHR), after which Bill told Neeta to do her first ever solo flight. At first, Neeta was a little nervous and wanted to push her solo till tomorrow. Bill insisted – and there goes Neeta. Read Full Story

Are enterprises at risk of making the same mistakes with Cloud Computing that they made with SOA? Funny enough, the answer could easily be yes. Here is why (in no particular order) Common SOA Mistake: Don’t involve the business; they will not get it With Cloud Computing, you easily run the risk of this. Leveraging Cloud Computing must involve the business and that too early. You need the business to understand the adoption model, benefits, cost and risk. Their buy-in will be critical... Read Full Story

I am big on using the Maturity Model concept to evaluate the architecture, process and deployment maturity. In the case of Software As A Service, a simple 4 step maturity model can be defined that would demonstrate how a SaaS vendor should consider building their product and how they can be assessed from a technical maturity and viability stand point. Read Full Story

I recently read a blog posting by Don Fornes titled “The Software as a Service Dilemma” at http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/uncategorized/the-software-as-a-service-dilemma-104071/ . Don has made some very interesting obsverations (not all that I agree with), however they provide a lot of insights into your thought process behind SaaS based software. Read Full Story

Anatomy of a SaaS application SaaS architectures are pretty basic. I thought I would write a few words too describe the basics of any SaaS application. Obviously each SaaS application offers some Core Functionality or Services. This is the core on which a vendor is able to attract customers and earn money. For example – WorkDay is a SaaS vendor that offers HR functionality in the Cloud. The core HR capabilities would fall under the “Core Functionality” bucket. The core capabilities are... Read Full Story

I have (like many others) been part of several debates and conversations on why is multitenancy important for the cloud. Alok Misra posts an interesting article in Information World with a lot of valid reasons and certainly I agree with them. http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/blog/archives/2010/02/why_multitenanc.html?catid=cloud-computing Here is what I have to add - I was recently on a call with Oracle and talking through the multitenancy capabilities of a SaaS product... Read Full Story