Hello and Welcome to Sugar Mountain!

Now with the 1.6 version I feel I’m starting to get to the extension I from start aimed at.

In the new version we now have checks for new Conversations from the, by Projectplace, newly released Social Overview.

If you have been notified by a new conversation you will see¹ it on the button as a label.
This image show a user who has two “unread” conversations awaiting inside Projectplace,  a click on the button will clear the saved number of conversations and log you into the system.

In the future I see a potential new Extension bar to be able to present more information since the toolbar label is somewhat limited. Today I only present the name of the last new Conversation and who created it in the button title.

Settings window

The new settings window have gotten a new option, “Check for conversation”. If you enable it, the Extension will automatically check for updates every 2 minutes. I use the HTML5 localstorage features to store the number of new Conversations and who created it. The current Database Quota is 5mb, so hopefully you will not get a question to accept a higher Quota.

Of course you can disable this if you feel like it, but the question is why you would want to do this. The new conversations are really good, so use them!

If you have the Extension installed, you will get a question to update it, and if you currently have not installed it, feel free to download the Extension HERE

Hopefully I’ll send out an update for the Chrome Extension, with the same features, as soon as I get the time.
¹ Due to different technical issues, you will not see the notifications if you are using the Projectplace for iPhone app. The iPhone app is simply to fast :-)

So I have had my first go with a Safari Extension and it has not been a smooth ride I tell you! The documentation over at Apple really leaves one wishing for more.

Some of the questions that I have manage to fix without documentation are the following

“How the heck do I add icons to the Safari Settings page?

Unless you want to have the default Safari Extension icons in Safari Settings(after installation), in the Safari Extension Builder and in the Installation Dialog, make sure you add three icons to your extension folder and call them:
Icon-32.png
Icon-48.png
Icon-68.png

And I guess you can figure out the dimensions of the icons, yes it 32×32, 48×48 and 68×68.
The result will be this:

Why the heck does not the updates work?

I made a lot of  misstakes when it comes to the update part of the Extension.
I finally got it to work by leaving the default value when it comes to “Bundle Identifier “.

When you create your new Extension you choose a name, for example myex.ver1, and the builder will create the folder(myex.ver1.safariextension with the Info.plist) for you and also create the default “Bundle Indentifier” in the Extension Builder. In my example the Identifier will be com.yourcompany.myexver1.

Now make sure that you only change the “com.yourcompany” part of the Identifier. I made the mistake of modifying the last part as well. In my example my Identifier looked like this “net.subelement.myex.ver1“.

The problem with this is that the updates will not ever work, when you have a .plist that looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
   <key>Extension Updates</key>
   <array>
     <dict>
       <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
       <string>net.subelement17.myex.ver1</string>
       <key>Developer Identifier</key>
       <string>YOUR IDENTIFIER</string>
       <key>CFBundleVersion</key>
       <string>1.0</string>
       <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
       <string>1.0</string>
       <key>URL</key>
       <string>http://subelement17.net/projectplace/projectplace.safariextz</string>
     </dict>
   </array>
</dict>
</plist>

So the thing is to always user the suggested Identifier, or you might end up in the same problems as I did.

You as a frekvent reader of this blog will notice that day 3 just disappeared, and it actually did, so here comes day 4!

Today me and Ram had one of those conversations again:

Ram: Do you know that Pakistan is gone, it’s Afghanistan now.
Olle: What?
R: Yes, it’s true. Afghanistan is taking over Pakistan.
O: When?
R: In the TT20!
O: What is that.
R: WORLD CUP OF CRICKET!
O: Ohh, how do you mean?
R:  All the cricket players in Pakistan is from Afghanistan!
O: Why?
R: Be course the Afghans have both Afghanistan and Pakistan passports.
O: Ohh, why
R: Well they travel over he border all the time.
O: Why do they do that.
R: Be course they live close to the border. All day long they pass over the border and play cricket in Pakistan. They train cricket, the play matches, they train.. Do you understand? And then they play for for Afghanistan.
O: Well, yes. They play a lot of cricket. But why do they  pass the border to Pakistan to go back into Afghanistan to play.
R: You are not listening to what I am saying!
O: Well, you said that Afghanistan is taking over Pakistan, right?
R: Yes.
O: And you said that  Afghanistan players are playing for Afghanistan.
R: No, for Pakistan.
O: No, you said not.
R: Yes, I did… You don’t listen to me.

So as you can see I have had a great time here in Bangalore, with Ram and the rest of the gang.
But now it’s time to go back home, can’t wait to see the family again, I miss them like hell.

…. if no ash cloud stops everything that is..

Finally back in the hotel room at 11pm after a long day.

The day started out by Ram blaming me for all the bad things that happend to him durring my 24 hours in India.
Apparently he had no electricity durring the night, so the AC did not work, leaving the flat hot as hell. Olle to blame, and not the thunderstorms raging all night.
Rams phone ran out of power, and since he uses it as his alarm clock, it did not wake him up on time. Olle to blame.
Rams cow and auto rickshaw incident was also to blame on me.  Finally we reach the office and  Ram manages to scratches the side of his car in a big brick wall when we are about to park… Hmm, now this is what you would call a bad start of the day.
Ram finally calms down when he gets his cup of coffee, and starts to talk about other things. But when it turns out I’m the only one in the office that has Internet access(since I’m not running on the Projectplace network), Ram have had enough. He stands up and screams: “The internet was working fin all last week, the moment you step in to the office, it’s down!”

Other then that a lot of things happend durring the day, both good and not so good things. All I can say is that transparency and honesty will always win in the long run.

When finally Ram let me of at the hotel, I managed to get some dinner in the restaurant before it closed. Somehow I always manage to eat when no one else is eating. Yesterday a couple of hours to early, and tonight a couple of hours to late. Interesting thing, they did not serve any beers tonight in the restaurant.. A white monday they said, ok.

After dinner I talked to the family back home on Skype, but the kids did not want to talk to me since it was Lilla Sportspegeln on Bobster. Well I talked to my wife at least, and she told me that a ash cloud was approaching Sweden. I’m really hoping that this does not become a problem on my trip back to Sweden. But if it does, if I where Ram, I would blame me.

This must be the coolest way of presenting the new HTML5 features.
Marcin Wichary and Ernest Delgado have done a great jobb creating a slideshow presenting the core of HTML5.

Do check it out at:
http://apirocks.com/html5/html5.html

The code can be found at:
http://code.google.com/p/html5-slides/

Yeah, guess what.. This trip also started with getting up really early and head to the airport.

An interesting thing happend in the check-in line at Arlanda. A group of approximately 50 elderly had encountered some problem at the self-checking machines and was now queuing with the rest of us. I was standing next to a couple where the man was really frustrated that the self-checkin machines did not work when flying with “Solresor”, words like “It’s a disgrace, I say”, “How can it be that the checkin opens first at 05:50. Our flight leaves at 07:30, so much for two hours checkin-in before the flight leaves.”, and “SAS have no service what so ever”. It all escalated when a elderly man, standing somewhere in the front of the que, step out of the line and walked up to a security guard asking him some question I did not hear. The result at least was that the man walked back and placed himself infront of the que and scream to us all, “He had no idea why the self-checking does not work for Solresor. SAS have no service what so ever!!!”
I do hope the trip went well for the gang, and that they could find Swedish coffee at the hotel.

I sleept the hole way to Frankfurt, was fast a sleep when we left Stockholm and woke up when the plain touched down in Frankfurt.
I worked with the XP2010 talk, listend to Johnny Cash while waiting for the connecting flight to Bangalore.

When I entered the Bangalore plane, it hit me that I once more had ended up on row 42, it’s the row where one can not lover the back of the seat. The same row I sat in when I needed to help an elderly woman all the way from Frankfurt to Bangalore. I was pretty upset with myself!
Luckily I had no elderly woman next to me this time, I was placed between a german guy and an indian girl.. All went well, except that I could not bring my laptop up due to cramped space. So the notes I needed to do for the Sunday meeting had to be done on the back of a receipt.
The only mayor problem I encountered was that there where a thunderstorm  located precisely above the Bangalore airport that held the plain circling for 45minutes. The german pilot calmed the passengers with “We still have some gas in the resevers, so it shall not be a problem”. Tip to all of you who are or want to become a pilot, never talk about “gas reserves” and “it shall not be a problem” in the same sentence. A white lie is some times ok!
We eventually landed, after a very bumpy ride

I managed to get through customs with out any problems this time, even though I had two passports with me. My new one, and the old expired one, with holes in it, that holds the visa.
I waited for my bags for 45minutes, and later went out to meet Prasad who had Rams car to pick me up. Rumor says that Ram was out drinking Vodka all night.

Prasad, as always, brought me safely into town and the hotel. He had brought his camera along so I was watching pictures and moves of his wife and from the last ceremony he had take part of in Kerala. (Prasad, if you read this, please paste the link in the comment box to the youtube movies so we all can see them )

Getting to the hotel was great, I was really tired from the flight but I was really pleased to see that the hotel had upgraded me into a two room suite.

After four hours of sleep it was time to get up, got some breakfast and re-wrote the notes found on the receipt. Ram came by the hotel and picked me up. We spent some great hours of talking, walking and lunching in the central parts of Bangalore. Joy and jubilation is all I really can say.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped to get Ram some swimming trunks, and Ram mentioned that he could not swim. I said, yeah yeah, and did not really think more about it. We finally got him some sexy trunks, and drove towards the hotel. That was when it happend, my first car accident in India!

Approximately 1km from the office, I saw a cow standing in the middle of the road somewhat hidden by the car infront of us. I said to Ram, “watch out, theres a cow”. Ram, “softly” steers the car to the left to pass the cow, but all of a sudden we hear this squeaking sounds coming from the back of the car. A auto rickshaw had hit Rams car when he was trying to avoid hitting the cow. It took about 5-6 seconds before Ram realizes what has happend. But when it all had sunk in, Ram turns of the engine in the middle of the road and steps out of the car..The conversation that now occurs between Ram and the auto rickshaw driver I can not repeat here, since it was in Tamil. But I can tell you one thing, it was mostly Ram doing the talking, well not really talking it was something else. Something that is between screaming and talking..really strange.
A cop came walking by and asked Ram to move the car from the middle of the road, and Ram did what he was told. Done, he steps out of the car and continues the monolog with the driver, and all of a sudden he stops. Walks way from the guy, gets into the car and says: “Now you have something for the blog. Ashole”.

We finally got to the hotel, continued the talks we had had all day, and when we where steaming hot we went down to the hotel pool. Now it became clear to me that Ram really can’t swim. If I someday feel sad, I will try to remember how it looks like when Ram dives. That will make me happy for sure.

Ram left after the thunderstorm had calmed down a bit, and I went of to have dinner.
I really really hate eating alone in a restaurant. I almost hate it as much as when someone calls me Sir.
Durring dinner today I was not allowed to bring more rise to the plate, no no. When I tried, all of a sudden a waiter turned up and took the plate away from me. After serving me he went back to his secret hideout to continue the surveillance. The same thing happend when I reached for the bowl of Naan. All this forced me to finish dinner in under 10minutes.

Tomorrow the adventure continues, I can’t wait.

So, this is my last day in Bangalore for now, and it’s a bit sad but at the same time I really miss the family back home.

Flow of the day:
1. Check out of hotel
2. Wait for Ramesh to pick me up
3. Talk to Ramesh in the car
4. Talk to Ramesh in the office
5. Laugh about things with Ramesh
6. Talk to Ramesh a bit more in Coffee Day.
7. See Deepa and Ganesh succeed in the investigation of @ referencing.
8. Take part in a BBC^* news report, a three minute interview about what I think makes a distributed team work.
9. Talk to Ramesh and Blue Star about stuff.
10 und so weiter, und so weiter…

Ramesh has been complaining about headache the complete day, I think it’s due to that he has been forced to think today.

Durring a coffee break with the gang today I got a little more information regarding the “on thursdays the developers don’t eat meat” thing that was reported yesterday . Apparently all the weekdays are somehow connected to a god, so if you are a fan of a specific god you don’t eat meat on that specific day. To add some confusion to this, apparently Saturday is the day for som big god that most people like, so almost no one shall eat meat on Saturdays. Bad news for all restaurants I thought. But Adarsh unfolded the truth to me, apparently there are ways around the “don’t eat meat on the day”. The trick is to have some relative pray a lot, then you can do as you please, even have a steak on a Saturday.

Since me and Ram have had massive amounts of talks today as all other days, we have also had our moments of confusion. The conversation, in Swedish, I have in mind started due to that Meriem had sent the tickets through mail:

Olle: You will arrived late to Stockholm on Tuesday right? Don’t forget to print the ticket for the Alps trip here in Bangalore before you leave.
Ram: No, I’ll come by the Stockholm office.
Olle: Ahha, ok. Yeah then you can print it there.
Ram: Yeah, I’ll be staying at Christophers place and we have plans to go out and buy some moss in the evening.
Olle: Moss? Why do you need moss?
Ram: I have thrown away the one I had!
Olle: But why the heck do you need moss?
Ram: What do you think, I don’t wanna freeze when going to the Alps, all of  you guys wil have moss!
Olle: Oh you mean a hatt of some kind
Ram: What?
Olle: Well you see, “mossa” is moss, and “mössa” is some kind of hatt
Ram: Aaaa, how do you spell that?

Today I also had the chance to talk a bit to Prasad and he had som really happy news. His wife is pregnant in the second month and I’m positive that Prasad will be a really cool dad to a really cool kid who will know how to  drive through the Bangalore trafic at the age of 3.

So, that’s about it really.
Finally me and Ram had lunch now at 9:45PM, better late then never, and I’m mostly waiting for the cab to come and pick me up at 11PM to take me to the airport for the flight that leaves at 03:30AM.
Durring lunch Ram shared the secret with me about how to get upgraded into Business Class. Apparently is just to ask a lot of questions, that can be answered by looking at your ticket, at the checkin counter. But according to Ram, that’s the trick. I will surely try to look really confused tonight!

^*Blue Star Broadcasting Company

Got inspired by Michael Lebowitz and his blog post My Open Windows, so here comes my copy of open tabs and windows:

The GIT help pages.
Still have not read the” Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow..” article sent to me by a colleague.
Twitter API Best Practices, great info.
The JS Test Driver Google Code page, download it now!.
Feature Injection over at Agile Journal.
Twelve emerging best practices for adding UX work to Agile development.
Projectplace

.. and the final list of open applications:
Google Chrome
Safari
Mail
iCal
iChat
Numbers
Coda
Tweetie
Spotify
Parallels

Day 2 is over and tomorrow is my final day here in Bangalore. Can’t believe how fast time fly.

Today has been kind of slow on the blog material front, or as Ram put it at 5PM today: “ha, today you will have nothing to write about!”. Due to that comment I have decided to focus this blog post on Ram.

Well the day started as most days do here in Bangalore for me, I get up, eat breakfast(this time out in the sun, really nice) and made sure to be on time when Ram arrived to pick me up. The trip was like always, Ram swearing at the “Yellow Nazis”(that’s auto rickshaw for the rest of the world), while leaning at the horn and trying to miss the cars in front of us.

Today me and Ram have mostly been hanging out together doing a lot of talking and walking. Really not much action. But talking to Ram can sometimes be an adventure. Today we where sitting at the local “Coffee Day”, den having the fourth bubble espresso for the day, discussion on what day Ram had booked the “Star of the Sprint / 70% Coverage Celebration” dinner, since Lisa had re-scheduled the Sprint Meeting. The conversation went like this(image this in Swedish):

Olle: So we have made a reservation tonight, not on Thursday?!
Ram: Yes, tonight!
Olle: But you booked the dinner on Thursday in the calendar?
Ram: No, on Wednesday!
Olle: No, on Thursday.
Ram: No tonight!
Olle: No, see here(showing my phone). It’s booked on Thursday.
Ram: Probably a bug, we will have the dinner tonight!
Olle: But does the gang know about this?
Ram: Yeah, probably!
Olle: Probably? But who made the reservation?
Ram: Jojo or Adarsh I think.
Olle: But how can we know that they know its tonight?
Ram: They know!
Olle: Ok, but still, why can’t we have the dinner tomorrow?
Ram: It’s Thursday, so they do not eat meat!
Olle: What? Is it some religious thing that happens on Thursdays?
Ram: Think so.
Olle: One every Thursday?
Ram: No, don’t think so, just this one
Olle: Well, they do not need to eat meat!
Ram: If they go out and eat they must eat meat!
Olle: But aren’t they vegetarian?
Ram: No, just me and Ganesh.
Olle: Ohh

So this is the kind of conversation me and Ram always seem to end up in, it’s kind of fun when one looks back at it.

Well the dinner was reserved by Adarsh. Adarsh seems to be the guy when it comes to reservations, mostly due to that he is the one who is the most picky when it comes to restaurants. Adarsh has one demand, and not all restaurants can live up to that, and the demand is Buffet! Adarsh would never ever set his foot in a restaurant without a buffet, and with this demand he has become the natural booker of dinner reservations in the team.

Once more Adarsh selected the excellent Barbecue Nation where we celebrated Supritha and Ganesh(a draw this month) as worthy Stars of the Sprint and we also celebrated the great effort of 70% Coverage in the last Sprint. Way to go!

We (the non vegetarians that is) all ate great hot food(Adarsh won) and some of us(Adarsh) even managed to have several cakes as dessert. After dinner some of us(Adarsh) had problems walking out of the restaurant due to the massive amount of food we had eaten.

After dinner we got stuck outside the restaurant a while since Ram needed some Indian snus. A word of warning, never ever try it, it burns big holes in your throat.
After we had said good by to all, and Adarsh left on his motor cycle with this helmet nicely hanging on the back of the bike; me, Ram, Durgesh and Jojo went back towards the office in Rams car. Luckily me and Jojo used the belts where we where sitting in the backseat, since Ram had a 100% hit rate of all road bumps on the way back. Ram’s comment to this, when me and Jojo notified him about our bouncing in the back of the car, was that his new car “has shitty shock absorbers”.

Tomorrow the adventure continues in the land of double parking holy cows(check out twitter/olled for proof).