Unlocking your iPhone is easier now

This is great news for iPhone users like me who does not have usage for highly priced data pack that is required by Apple. FCC has published it's latest guidelines called exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which allows iPhone users to legally unlock their iPhone to use with different carriers. The exemption reads as below:
"Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of the computer program solely in order to connect to a wireless telecommunications network and access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network."
The ruling also made Alternative iPhone App store legal to be used. Please note that Apple can still void the warranty if you choose to jailbreak. 

Science behind brain fitness

There is a new business trend in fitness these days - boosting the brain. USC and Mayo clinic
 scientists in a joint research study funded by a company called Posit Science claimed that company's software users improved their auditory processing speed by 60%. There has been boost in sales for brain teaser games, brain friendly nutritional food items, software and games. Here is a list of facts many of us do not know about our brain(taken from Cognifit website):

• When you’re sleeping, your brain stays awake.
• While you're awake, your brain generates about 25 watts of power. That’s enough to illuminate a light bulb, so you should be grateful that’s not happening while you’re asleep.
• Your brain is a power hog. Although it makes up only 2% of your body's weight, it uses 20% of your body's energy.
• The right side of your brain controls the left side of your body, and the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body.
• Some experts estimate the average person loses about 9000 brain cells a day.
• Every time you yawn, you’re sending a wake-up call to the brain. The extra air you inhale when yawning goes into your lungs, which send that extra oxygen to the blood and then to the brain, giving it a little jolt of alertness.
• Even one night without sleep can create a deficit in your ability to form new memories.
• If you have a condition known as “synesthesia,” your brain perceives letters or numbers as having colors.
• An elephant’s brain weighs about 13 pounds, or about 10 pounds more than yours.

What is for consumer in New Financial Reform

New financial reform was signed by president last week. So what is in the 2,300 pages law for us the consumer?  After reading some articles on the web, I wanted to summarize few things that might impact our life the most:

• Keep cash in your wallet - Businesses like coffee shop can impose $10 minimum on swiping your plastic legally now. Congress has allowed them to give discount to cash payers. This will save small business a tons of monthly credit card fees, so expect cheaper coffee and bagel, if you have cash in your wallet. I think, big ticket retail business will also offer discount on cash or bank transfer if paid online. Credit card companies will have to be innovative now.
• New financial regulatory agency for consumer - This sounds like bigger government, but this is essential. The newly setup Consumer Financial Protection Agency or CPFB will be setup soon and armed with power to deal with shady business practices, predatory landing schemes and other abusive  financial product offerings. Bad news - Car dealers have successfully lobbied to keep themselves out of CPFB
• Home loans - a) ARM mortgage customer must get 6 month advance notice for rate renewal. b) IRS reported Income must be documented for home loans. No more stated income loan. Loans will be harder to get for a lot of people. 
• SEC will be more investor friendly - SEC will have more power to oversee brokers, It is expected to be more investor friendly but yet to see. 

Personal Branding - key to professional success

One of my manatees who is a fresh graduate and new comer to the IT Industry in India asked me last week about whether he should spend any time on social networking websites like facebook and linkedin and if yes then why and how much. I found the question very valid and wanted to post my answer to him for my readers. Use of social networking software varies from person to person. Some find it useful to keep in touch with friends and share whats happening in their life. Others use it to make network and create and promote personal branding.
Personal Branding has never been more important for students who are looking to get into workplace or for professionals who are looking for better opportunity or simply want to climb the corporate ladder.
You must have heard many career development gurus suggesting YOU to treat as a corporation (Me Inc.) and think of Personal Branding as a way of developing and marketing yourself. Personal Branding is more than having a profile on social networking websites. It is about:

• Being Authentic about who you are, what your accomplishments so far and what are you passionate about. If you can't find answers to these questions, you should ask your best friend or relative.
• Introducing yourself to the world with confidence; Tell me about yourself is a tough question unless you practice it and communicating it with confidence is even tougher. 
• Developing the Personal Branding material - Just like a company needs various mediums to market its product and services, you need to utilize all the available tools to market yourself. This includes your online profiles, blogs, user group forum contributions, personal webpage etc. Only thing to make sure is that message is consistent across all mediums.
• Building professional online image - You are being googled by your friends, recruiters, everyone so its very important that your online reputation is not compromised. You should be very careful about what your post online, as it is likely going to remain forever online even if you take it out. Build your strong linkedin profile and keep it updated.
• Reassessing your online profile regularly - Just as your experience, personal goal and aspirations are going to evolve with time, your Personal Branding strategy also need to evolve. 

I will continue on Personal Branding in my next post. Any ideas, suggestions and comments are welcome !

Giving notice at a job you love, for a job you hope will propel your career to new levels

My friend Jacquie Mardell, UCSC-extension Professor and a very accomplished women in the field of Clinical Research writes and mentors a lot of her students using her posts at 2 Decades & Counting I read her posts regularly and her recent post caught my attention as we as a professional have gone through similar situations in our career where we have to give notice at a job we love, for a job we think will take our career to a new level.
She has made very good and practical points in her post, a must read:
http://2decades.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-student-advice.html

Software Testability and more !

Software testability has always been very important area for QA and testing community. How to build software components that have better testability? To understand this and find some answers, we must understand what does testability mean.
Software testability or testability of software components is a software feature that simplifies test operations, reduce testing costs and increase software quality. To explain it further testability of a software program will be guided by the following characteristics:
1. How easy is to understand the software behavior for its input, output and operation. In other words, simplified interfaces will have better testability.
2. How easy is to track the behavior of the attributes of the software programs, in other words, how good the program traceability is.
3. How easy is to control a program behavior for its input, output and operations.  This is also often referred as controllability of the software program.
So how this problem is being solved? The area of testability is hot and emerging. The problem is being tackled in many ways, including standardization of test techniques to create reusable test suites and testcases for reusable components of sosftware. Another approach is to create software components with Built in tests and test interfaces. The topic is so relevant right now that Google Test Automation Conference (GTAC) 2010 is using Testability as its theme. The deadline to submit your paper is July 11 so hurry.

Time Management tips from "First Thing First"

I have been reading a lot of materials on time management these days and came across on this very useful tips from famous book from Steven Covey:
If you are having difficulty finishing all your work on time(in other words having your time management problem) consider thinking your work/activities as Rock, Gravel and Sand. Rock representing the most strategic and important tasks, gravel representing the next important tasks and sand the least important ones. Now you try to fill them in a bowl. If you fill sand and gravel first you will end up finding no place for rock. But if you fill the rock first, gravel second there will still be plenty of room for sand left.
Very powerful analogy!