I came across the timeline project of SIMILE and found that it is simply wonderful. This project creates a band of time and date of events. I found that this project can be used to create historical time period mapping with important dates and events. Creating GANTT chart for project management software will be a cakewalk if the code base is used. Practically this project can be used in several areas. I am going to explore it. What about you?

Have you ever faced any situation where you need to provide download option as MS-Word, Excel etc. If the situation is exactly like this (This kind of situation you might face while preparing report) then the easiest way is to prepare the html, and pass correct header to download as excel or word.

Let try an example.

<?php
$wertex = file_get_contents("http://www.wertex.org/index.php");
$len = strlen($wertex);
header("Expires: 0");
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
header("Cache-Control: public");
header("Content-Description: File Transfer");
header("Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel");
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary');
//Force the download
header("Content-Length: ".$len);
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="wertex.xls";');
print($wertex);
exit();?>

In the above we are simply printing the HTML and passing the header so that browser asks to download it. The rest will be handled by excel. If you don’t believe me, run the code and see the result

Here is a small code piece written in PHP 5. The code piece mainly creates a web based windows explorer. This is not complete yet. However, I prefer to upload so I can get valuable suggestions. The code base is using the observer-observable design pattern. The entire design pattern is as follows.

The code base is divided into two folder viz Model and controller. There are two classes written in model folder. One is explorer.class.php and another is observable.class.php .

In the explorer class and interface is created. This interface is implemented in an abstract class widdir. Finally winfolder class extends the abstract class and creates the observer. In the observable abstract class folderAction has been created.

I did not get much time in commenting out the code. Once I finish the coding, I will publish the entire code. Till then please email me any suggestion of yours.

Download Webexplorer

Package and Install Information: Unzip the package. Place it in the web folder. Open index.php and change the line define("BASE_DIR","e:"); // change this to the top folder. For linux it should be / .Set it to the folder/drive you want to display. Looking forward to your suggestions.

There is no end of diseases in this world. Every day the names of some new diseases are catching our attention. Sometimes I wonder that whether the All Mighty God has created as many diseases as the number of the people in all over the world. There are many ailments and their patients, we encounter everyday, but we hardly know or identify them.
Dyslexia is such a disease from the list of those generally unrecognizable ailments. Many books, articles or films have been made so far that dealt with Dyslexia at length. But off late I watched a Hindi movie ‘Taare Zameen Par’ (IMDB Link) and this really made me to ponder over it. The story portrays the misery of a boy who is suffering from dyslexia but his parents are unaware of it. Though the boy lives in the lap of all kind of luxury and comfort, he finds himself very alone and helpless. Despite his mother’s full effort he fails to read and write properly. Everyone misunderstands him and thinks that he is just neglecting his studies intentionally. He is unable to fare well in his academic world and becomes the eyesore of everybody starting from schoolteachers to parents.
But what is this Dyslexia and what are its symptoms? Let us try to search it together.
The word Dyslexia is derived from the Greek word ‘dys’(inadequate) and ‘lexis’(language). Dyslexia may also be defined as disease where a patient finds difficulty with the written language i.e reading, spelling and writing. This is quite different from reading difficulties resulting from other causes like deficiencies in intelligence, a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from inadequate reading instructions. This disease is not an intellectual disability but it results from neurological differences. Dyslexia can occur to anybody, irrespective of the level of intelligence. To a Dyslexic, letters and words may appear reversed. This disability of reading and writing of the patients generally becomes evident in the early years of schooling. Many Dyslexics never learn to read and write properly in the entire life. Recent studies have revealed that Dyslexia is located in the brain. Damage to the brain can cause reading disability similar to Dyslexia. In many cases Dyslexia appears to be inherited.
Dyslexic children seems to have problems in developing early reading skills, hearing individual sounds in words, analyzing whole words in parts and blending sounds in words. They find trouble in translating thoughts into language and the vice-versa. Most of the children with Dyslexia are of average intelligence, although many of them show unusual talent in the field of arts, athletics, graphics, architecture, drama, music etc.
The causes for this disease are still unknown although the researchers have confirmed that such conditions are often inherited.
Some of the symptoms that indicate Dyslexia are:

• Difficulty in learning or to recognize written words.
• Difficulty in Rhyming.
• Trouble in understanding the meaning of a single sentence.
• Writing or arithmetic learning problem.

These are the few indicators that alarm you about your loving kid and tell you that it is the right time to take the help of a doctor instead of misunderstanding your offspring.
Dyslexia is a life-long condition but it can be cured with timely and proper intervention of the Parents. When a child is diagnosed with Dyslexia, the parents should inquire from his or her school or from a diagnostician that what problems exactly are facing by their kids. The primary focus in the treatment of Dyslexia is on the learning process…..As these children always suffer from low confidence, parental care is highly necessary. Giving your child an assurance that you know his problem and you are there to help him and save him from all difficulties, is enough to instill a confidence in him. Patience and technique is required for the person who takes the responsibility of teaching dyslexic children.

You will get some good resources around and professional help you can always seek. But, the biggest concern is identifying your dyslexic child and helping him to stand strong in life. And there is every chance that your child in one day, will not only shine but will earn fame and fortune.

If you want to succeed as a Business Development officer or Project Manager or as a Programmer, you cannot escape communicating with the client. It is that point where you will understand the requirement or you will handle all User Acceptance Tests related questions. How fine your coding might be, how immaculate your process, or how efficiently you can handle things; all these will just go in vain if the buyer is not happy with you. And you and you only responsible for transferring the right message to the client and in the right way.

In the beginning I would like to discuss at what points the communication becomes the only way of survival, for you as well as for the product you build.

• In the beginning of the project when client helps you to understand the system he wants.
• When the project is going through rough phase like employee resignation, internal disturbance.
• When the client is demanding something which might be difficult to implement or is next to impossible.
• When you know the requirement is easy to accomplish but might cross the budget involved.
• When a deadline is about to miss and you are no way responsible for this or have no control over it.
• And in the end, when client is understanding the system for acceptance.

In all these situations, if you cannot put the right message in the right way, you would always be in trouble. But what are the obstacles to frame the right question or right answers. Lets discuss.

• The receiving end if is not attentive and only wants to send his message across without paying heed to the other communicator.
• The lack of language skill to put the fact in the right way.
• Country, race and religion barrier.
• When the relationship is already at stake or some mis-communications already happened.

Before we discuss what would be the way out in each of the situation written above, let me tell you what are the golden rules for proper communication.

1. Be informative: It is useless to communicate when you are not all knowledgeable. If the client is saying something wrong, you need to intervene at the right time with the proper solution. A communication cannot build with the person who does not know anything about the system.
2. Be an active listener: If you are not attentive to what the client is saying, you cannot analyze. You must be an attentive listener.
3. Be a clarifier: Do not move to the next point, unless you are very sure of the last point. You must raise all your doubts, all questions, possibilities which come to your mind.
4. Be a verifier: If there is any example or instance, verify that before you move to next point of communication. Like if the client gives any reference, check if it really exists and if exists if it is exactly the same as the client is saying.
5. Be analyzer: Like a chess player, you must consider the implications of each and every references the client moots. You should then tell implicitly all the possibilities and their impacts.
6. Be aggressive: Do not be submissive like ‘Yes Sir’ or ‘OK Sir’ and try to rule the conversation. At the same time aggression does not implies haughtiness. So you shall be polite enough to moot all your points.
7. Be considerate: Do not tell blatantly that I won’t do it or It is not possible. Rather put it in different way like ‘as my knowledge and understandings, this cannot be done in the budget. However, allow me to study further before I confirm my claim’.
8. Don’t be an accuser: Do not accuse the client. No body like to share the blame. You can however say that ‘Whatever you said is correct, however, in our situation following that might lead to some difficulties’. So, you please say, if following your statement was viable or not.
9. Do not use absolute terms: Absolute terms are like ‘Always’, ‘Never’, ‘Impossible’ etc. Instead use ’sometimes or generally’, ’seldom’, ‘difficult or somehow not feasible’ etc.
10. Don’t be defensive nor attacking: Do not take blame nor accuse. Like ‘I am not accusing you but you know….’ or ‘I knew the fact, but I alone was not blamable. You know there were …’

Now, in the beginning of the article, I gave some examples of various situations. Lets discuss some of the possible stands you might consider for each of the cases.

• When the project starts, you role is to understand the requirements. Before that begins you must do your homework. Gain some knowledge on the business domain, existing solutions. Here, you also take client’s country and religion into consideration. At this juncture, you are going to build a relationship and a trust which will will help you to sail through the project. Don’t make any comments which could hurt the client. Don’t attack anyone’s sentiments. You must be suggestive but not critic. Try to gather as much information from client as you can and analyze the whole conversation. Once done, frame all your questions, possibilities, implications and suggestions.
• Be honest and place the right reason responsible the rough phase. At the same time, let the client know the solutions you thought of and possible date when everything will be resolved.
• Politely state what could be implications if you implement what the client is saying. Try to highlight the financial loses he might incur.
• You must be straight enough to say that the budget might cross and at the same time, present him the reasons for that. Like employee hours involvements, purchases involved etc.
• Again, before you communicate that, you must come out with an alternate deadline. Present him the reasons and the next deadline. If he gets frustrated, ask him what could be his step if he were in the same situation like you.
• This is once again a critical step. Here you must convince the client for each and every fault he points. If it is a bug or mistake just admit and give him a date for the rectification. If he is at fault, help him to understand the situation and jointly get out of the situation.

Once you have the mastery over the art, you will feel a confidence to handle every situation in the right manner. And to do that, you need to admit and understand that, for every problem communication is the only solution.