Successfully contested the traffic ticket

Couple of months ago I wrote a blog about My Very First Traffic Ticket. I was frustrated and angry then, because I wasn't at fault and did not deserve the ticket. To my delight, I received a letter from Supreme Court of California stating that my ticket has been dismissed and my bail amount will be refunded with in 60 days.

I did not stand before a judge at the court but contested the ticket via a written statement. Received the written statement form from Fremont Hall of Justice and sent the completed form via certified mail with some simple write up and equally simple evidence. The simple evidence is nothing but a Google Map (satellite view of the road) with some markings using a sketch pen. I wasn't sure if my evidence and write up is enough to successfully contest the ticket. But looks like it did the trick.

Posted at 08:15PM Jun 28, 2007  |  Permanent link to this entry | Comments [1]

JavaOne 2007 Hands on labs (AJAX related) are available online

JavaOne 2007 hands on labs are available for download at

http://developers.sun.com/learning/javaoneonline/j1labs.jsp?track=8&yr=2007

The available labs are

• LAB-4410 Benchmarking and Profiling Web 2.0 Applications For Performance
• LAB-4420 Building Ajax-Enabled JavaServer Faces Web Applications With jMaki, Dynamic Faces, and the NetBeans Visual Web Pack
• LAB-4430 Developing Custom JSF Components For NetBeans Visual Web Pack
• LAB-4440 Building Web2.0 application using Sun Web Developer Pack( SWDP), GlassFish and Netbean LAB-4450 Rapidly Building a Real Life Application With Ajax and JavaServer Faces Components using the NetBeans Visual Web Pack
• LAB-4460 Building Ajax-Enabled JavaServer Faces Web Applications With jMaki, Dynamic Faces, and the NetBeans IDE
• LAB-5410 Securing Identity Web Services

I'm one of the authors of the lab LAB-4460

Posted at 11:30AM May 09, 2007  |  Permanent link to this entry | Comments [2]

Got my very first traffic ticket and I was not guilty

Finally it happened. I got my very first traffic ticket today and I'm positive I was not guilty.

It was a non moving traffic violation ticket called CVC 22526 (B) - Turning and Blocking Intersection / Gridlock.

When I took the left turn, there was a big van in from of me. Both the van and I cleared the intersection, well by a margin of 10-15 feet before the van stopped and tried to enter the Fry's electronics, whose entrance is about 20-25 feet from the intersection. It was jam packed because of black Friday. I had to wait for few seconds before continuing on the lane. There may be a possibility, few cars behind me were stuck in the intersection. But I had clearly cleared the intersection and crossed in to the lane just when the green turned yellow (not yellow to red) and waited for the van to clear the lane, 10-15 feet inside the lane, not in the intersection. When the van entered the Fry's electronics, I moved forward in the lane and the officer flagged several cars behind the truck including mine. Initially, I thought that he was stopping us because the lane in front of us may be blocked (saw several orange cones in front of us) and we may have to take different route. But, I was flabbergasted, when he told me, he had stopped me to cite me for not clearing the intersection before the light turn red. I'm 100% positive he was wrong, because, not only I cleared the intersection when green turned yellow (much before yellow turned red), I was waiting for the van to turn in to Fry's electronics 10-15 feet inside the lane, not in the intersection.

The officer, who was almost 200-300 feet away from the intersection (and was standing in front of the van), might not have seen me clearing the intersection, because I was behind the van which may be obstructing his view. But he didn't buy my argument and gave me the ticket.

I could simply pay the fine and forget about whole thing, since I may not get any point in my record for this non moving traffic violation. However, since I was clearly not guilty, I'm planning to contest the ticket.

Anyway, getting the first traffic ticket is not as bad as I feared.

Posted at 08:21PM Nov 24, 2006  |  Permanent link to this entry | Comments [2]

Back from Prague after visiting Netbeans

Last week I was in Prague meeting with Netbeans Architects, Lead Engineers and Evangelists to discuss about next release of Visual Web Pack for Netbeans 6.

Lots of hectic but very fruitful and productive meetings. I get to visit several local restaurant along with fellow Engineers sampling local delicacies.

Also, attended the Netbeans 5.5 release party at the club called Blues Rock Club. Enjoyed the party (lots of food, free flow of Beer, music and all the dancing) except for the smoking inside the club which I haven't experienced in the California clubs.

Posted at 07:00AM Nov 06, 2006  |  Permanent link to this entry | Comments [5]

Snake in the trail

During the Sun wide July shutdown, I was hiking with my family, when I came accross this snake in the trail. Stretched fully across the trail, the snake was basking in the sun and was in no mood to give us way. After refusing to move for about 5 minutes, finally it succumbed to our relentless staring and slowly slithered and disappeared in to the near by bush, giving us way to hike further. It was fun to watch a live snake in front of us in the trail. Sadly, we saw another snake which was crushed to death near the parking lot.

Posted at 10:20PM Jul 07, 2006  |  Permanent link to this entry | Comments [0]

Free copy of Visual Studio 2005

I was invited to attend the Launch Tour 2005 of Microsoft SQL Server 2005; Microsoft Visual Studio 2005; Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 at the moscone center, San Francisco on Nov 7. It was a grant party with a live concert at the end. All participant were given a free copy of the Visual Studio 2005 professional edition and SQL Server 2005. Food was good too.

Posted at 08:40PM Nov 14, 2005  |  Permanent link to this entry | Comments [2]

Guess what latest Sun product I found at Microsoft Conference 2005

It is the latest and greatest galaxy server SunFire v40Z (Powered by Dual Core). When we were browsing through the booths in the Microsoft Prefessional Developer Conference (PDC) 2005 expo, we stopped by AMD booth and saw Sun's beautiful server on display. I wouldn't have imagined seeing a Sun product on display at Microsoft Conference couple of years ago.

Posted at 09:29AM Sep 20, 2005  |  Permanent link to this entry | Comments [1]

Most popular Java T-Shirt distributed at Microsoft Conferenece 2005

The most popular and likable T-Shirt distributed at the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference (PDC) reads

Meet Sharat Chander (Shar) the designer of the t-shirt and the hero behind the successful Sun Microsystems booth in the Microsoft Developer Conference. The slogan that put smile on the people's face when they got the t-shirt was also written by him. I personally heard people saying "It is so cool, I gotta have one", "I heard that you are handing out some cool t-shirts, can I have one of them". Several Microsoft employees stopped by to pick one too!. Second day itself we ran out of t-shirts after distributing about 1000 t-shirts.

First day a Microsoft rep stopped by Sun booth and told Shar (he was wearing the t-shirt then) that the slogan is some what controversial and it is better if he doesn't wear it. However, he had no choice but to retreat when Shar showed him the written consent he got from Microsoft to distribute the t-shirt at the conference expo.

Posted at 10:10AM Sep 19, 2005  |  Permanent link to this entry | Comments [8]

Sun at Microsoft PDC

Just got back from first day of Microsoft PDC (Professional Developers Conference, 2005) and writing this from my hotel room. First time ever in the PDC history Sun is having a booth in the PDC talking about inter-operability between Sun Java Tools and .NET.

We handed out T-shirts with a very interesting slogan (will post it with pictures soon). Almost 700 T-shirts were handed out with in few hours. Many people stop by to know what is Sun doing at Microsoft PDC and to get hold of the T-shirt.

I have lots of interesting pictures. Unfortunately, forgot to bring the cable to download the pictures from my Camera. Will post the pictures when I get back to work on Friday.

Posted at 11:50PM Sep 13, 2005  |  Permanent link to this entry | Comments [0]