Eric Sink : Version Control By Example

If you want to learn key concepts of a  Version Control system with an example or would like to have a nice and handy reference manual for Git, Subversion, Mercurial and Veracity, here is a book from Eric Sink, called “Version Control by Example”. 

This book uses practical examples to explain version control with both centralized and decentralized systems.  Topics covered include:

• Basic version control commands and concepts
• Introduction to Distributed Version Control Systems (DVCS)
• Advanced branching workflows
• Strengths and weaknesses of DVCS vs. centralized tools
• Best practices
• How distributed version control works under the hood

The best part is that the book is absolutely FREE.  You can read it online or download the book in various formats. If you prefer a Printed copy, you can request for one, for FREE as well.

Read it online and request for a FREE printed copy if you like it.

Links : HTML5 Boiler Plate for Google AppEngine Projects

While searching for something on Github, I stumbled upon a pretty comprehensive HTML5 Boiler Plate for Google AppEngine Projects. Looks great to use as the default Google App Engine project template.

App Engine Boilerplate is a versatile yet minimalistic setup for new App Engine projects.

• html5-boilerplate 2.0
 (including it's automated build toolchain for minification and concatenation of js+css)

• Beautiful OpenID login with openid-selector

• Memcaching setup for requests and responses

• Flexible user-preferences model (with Gravatar link)

• Templates and template addons

• Tools such as is_testenv() and slugify(url)

• app.yaml
 configuration for admin areas, static files

• Released under the BSD license

The source is available on Github. Will be using it in an App Engine project that will be kicked off towards the middle of the week and will share more about it.

How To Start A Business In India

Information Technology, Knowledge Workers and Business Process Outsourcing are few keywords that may come to your mind whenever you hear about India. But that only tells a fraction of the evolving Vibrant India's story.

India has the largest 'younger' population in the world. India is the largest living democracy in the world. Indian Economy is growing at a phenomenal rate. The fact that Indian Economy could tolerate the worst global recession we have ever witnessed, tells the story of strong financial markets, its trade independence and a raising middle class with increasing purchasing power.

There are a variety of factors, many analysts believe, that will make India a Global Destination for Research & Development, Trade and Innovation in the years to come.

In this strictly informational session,

• Learn how to start your business in India.
• Learn about organization structures including the new LLP
• Learn about various policies and special economic zones.
• Learn about essentials of Tax structure and more.

Please note that we are not Legal experts. We would like to share the Vibrant side of India and why you can't miss out one of the best global trade destinations. This session is strictly informational. The session will be presented 

Online, in a Webinar Format
On 3rd of September, 2011 from 9.00 AM to 11 AM

Join the session to explore more. Please send an email to info@inspions.com with a note on "what you do, your interests and any specific aspects your would like to know in detail" to register. We will send the URL for the webinar 48 hours before the session.

Building Native iOS Apps With Titanium

Titanium from Appcelerator has been proving to be a really great framework to develop Native Mobile applications in Web's darling, Javascript. Started a few weeks back to check it out and we are now totally hooked. Comparing to developing an iOS application in Objective-C, its totally ridiculously simple. For us, it is definitely a 10x productivity boost. 

If you have an idea and if it takes weeks to develop the prototype, it is tough to keep up team's motivation. Titanium is quite magical when it comes to speed. As we can iterate our UI designs much faster with Titanium, we could refine our original idea and improve upon almost every day. And a working idea can make wonders when it comes to team's morale and confidence. 

If you haven't tried it, Give it a try. I am quite sure, you will love it.

Btw, Appcelerator guys recently opened up some of their training modules to all for Free. Check them out and they will definitely clarify a few things and gives a better head start. For instance, the videos recommend a slightly different approach of organizing code than what you see in their Kitchensink sample application.

Link to Training Videos : Build Native Mobile Apps With Titanium

I am quite sure, there is one big dilemma of approaching Titanium to build a native iOS application. Will Apple approve your apps built on Titanium ?  We haven't found any rejections by searching on the web and recently NBC released an iPad application and was approved by Apple. So, doesn't look like an issue. But we keep our fingers crossed until our application gets approved. 

Even with the possibility of a rejection, some where in the back of the mind, we are seriously considering to go ahead with Titanium and take our chances. With its almost magical productivity, we won't  be loosing much. More over, the application UI, design, use cases, application flow and most importantly the early feedback we can get is still be totally invaluable if we have to redo in Objective C later on.

Adobe Releases a HTML5 Design Tool, Edge

Adobe released a preview edition of Adobe Edge, a Motion and Interaction Design tool that generates output NOT in Flash but in HTML5, JavaScript and CSS.

Adobe® Edge is a new web motion and interaction design tool that allows designers to bring animated content to websites, using web standards like HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3.  -- Adobe Edge

Anybody already started reading between the lines ?