Things are getting a little bit more intense!

As midyear approaches, deadlines approach...meaning higher intensity. My work deadlines get tighter by the day and NBA playoffs keep me awake till 2 a.m. This is by far the most athletic playoff season i have seen in a long time. Houston vs Dallas and Denver vs San Antonio are as my blog says the 2 best series of the playoffs. Boston vs Indiana, Chicago vs Washington have been interesting but nothing compares to my top 2. Let me rate the first round of playoffs based on intensity and game-closeness:

1) Houston vs Dallas
2) Denver vs SanAntonio
3) Sacramento vs Seattle
4) Boston vs Indiana
5) Detroit vs AI( i would rather take AI over the entire roster)
6) Wade+sidekicks vs Nets
7) Bulls vs Wizards( all games were blowouts even though the score is 2-2)
8) Sun Guns Grizzlies ( Was this even a matchup....I wish Minnesota played better).

My second round predictions are straightforward:
1) Dallas vs Suns :
2) Spurs vs Sonics:
3) Detroit vs Boston
4) Miami vs Bulls.

Seems like the whole schedule is going according to what the commissioner predicted. As everyone expects: Phoenix will face San Antonio in West and Detroit will face Miami. I wont predict further till i see the injury status.

Denver(my favorite) Nuggets fell short in overtime today falling to 3-1. The key difference i thought was not lack of effort, but a poor game by Kenyon Martin and Andre Miller and little coaching blunders by George Karl. George allowed the game to drift a little towards SanAntonio before taking timeouts whereas Pop took whenever Denver was threatening to run. Score changed from 61-57 SanAntonio to 61-61...and Pop took a timeout. Karl let the game go away to almost 10 point leads by SanAntonio before calling time. Denver will improve next year for sure..but was Kenyon Martin worth 90 million dollars? This is my big question to Kiki and Stan Kroenke. Denver needs a good shooter and another good rebounder to support Camby. Martin is not a consistent Power Forward and I think shows off his antics more than playing ball. Tim Duncan needs to serve a coaching manual to play Basketball and talk less to him.
Watch this space for more playoff tidbits!

XML rocks and so do the Phoenix Suns!

Whoever invented XML did a great service to the WWW and otherwise. Some things go so unnoticed and it is these little inventions that matter a lot to all of us. I am writing XML Schemas, using stylesheets to convert them, writing complex xml files and I would say that this invention kicks ass! If anyone is a newbie out there writing schemas, Google is the best resource for almost everything i found. I also used A9.com to read through some stuff in the books.

As I am an avid sports fan, the NBA playoffs( as of today) seem to be set in the western conference and a little undecided regarding who plays Miami Heat.
Western Conference Matchups and my predictions:
1) Phoenix Suns vs Memphis Grizzlies
Winner: Suns
Why?

Phoenix can fail only if Steve Nash is injured and Memphis is totally inspired else they have too many weapons. They are the #1 scoring offense in the league and nobody but Dallas/SanAntonio can push them in a 7 game series. Grizzlies have good defense and a good bench but hard to stop the desert runners.

2) SanAntonio Spurs vs Denver Nuggets
Winner: Tim Duncan plays - Spurs else Nuggets
Why?

One of the best defenses in the league + Duncan makes them an amazing combo but Denver has a chance to upset SanAntonio if Camby plays and Denver is able to run the ball well. Even with Duncan i think Denver can give them a good fight. But Duncan is not playing completely fit and if Denver wins 1 of the 2 road games in the beginning, they have a great chance. I predict this to be the second best series in the west

3) Seattle Supersonics vs Sacramento Kings
Winner: Supersonics
Why?

Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Danny Fortson, Reggie Evans...do we need more reasons? especially with an injured Kings roster. I feel sorry for Rick Adelman, one of the best coaches in the league that something always prevents him from reaching the finals.

4) Dallas Mavericks vs Houston Rockets
Winner: Mavericks
Why?

Nowitzki, Dampier, Stackhouse, Howard vs Houston defense- This is gonna be the playoff series of the First round. It will be the hardest fought, but i predict Dallas to cut through.

Hope the best teams win! My next blog will answer the Eastern Conference predictions

Tidbits of interview questions!

Some questions i always get:
1) Why didnt Java introduce Operator Overloading?
2) Why C++ structs was extended to behave like public classes?

I wonder why interviewers always pose the following questions in C++/Java:

1) What does the virtual destructor mean and why is it necessary?
2) What problems do you get by Multiple inheritance?
3) Difference between String and StringBuffer in Java?
4) How do you implement a linked list in java?
5) Difference between delete n and delete [] n ?
6) what is the difference between interface and an abstract class in Java? when would you use interface and when do you use an abstract class?

Routine concepts i suppose. It's like saying...hey i know syntax. A good interviewer always tests you on "how to implement something". I enjoyed interviewing with Microsoft, Google,Amazon and Qualcomm as they test your translation of idea to code. Not many companies i have interviewed do that. Most of them ask about your resume and questions related to skill set. I think its good to a certain extent without the need to overdo it. Unfortunately some companies still do it.

I will write some tutorials in my next few posts.