SOAP Building Blocks

A SOAP message is an ordinary XML document containing the following elements:

* A required Envelope element that identifies the XML document as a SOAP message
* An optional Header element that contains header information
* A required Body element that contains call and response information
* An optional Fault element that provides information about errors that occurred while processing the message

All the elements above are declared in the default namespace for the SOAP envelope.


Syntax Rules for SOAP

Here are some important syntax rules:

* A SOAP message MUST be encoded using XML
* A SOAP message MUST use the SOAP Envelope namespace
* A SOAP message MUST use the SOAP Encoding namespace
* A SOAP message must NOT contain a DTD reference
* A SOAP message must NOT contain XML Processing Instructions

JAVA talk : Collection Interface

Collection

The Collection (in the API reference documentation) interface is the root of the collection hierarchy. A Collection represents a group of objects, known as its elements. Some Collection implementations allow duplicate elements and others do not. Some are ordered and others unordered. The JDK doesn't provide any direct implementations of this interface: It provides implementations of more specific subinterfaces like Set and List. This interface is the least common denominator that all collections implement. Collection is used to pass collections around and manipulate them when maximum generality is desired.

JAVA talk : ArrayList Class

public class ArrayList
extends AbstractList
implements List, RandomAccess, Cloneable, Serializable

Resizable-array implementation of the List interface. Implements all optional list operations, and permits all elements, including null. In addition to implementing the List interface, this class provides methods to manipulate the size of the array that is used internally to store the list. (This class is roughly equivalent to Vector, except that it is unsynchronized.)

The size, isEmpty, get, set, iterator, and listIterator operations run in constant time. The add operation runs in amortized constant time, that is, adding n elements requires O(n) time. All of the other operations run in linear time (roughly speaking). The constant factor is low compared to that for the LinkedList implementation.

Each ArrayList instance has a capacity. The capacity is the size of the array used to store the elements in the list. It is always at least as large as the list size. As elements are added to an ArrayList, its capacity grows automatically. The details of the growth policy are not specified beyond the fact that adding an element has constant amortized time cost.

An application can increase the capacity of an ArrayList instance before adding a large number of elements using the ensureCapacity operation. This may reduce the amount of incremental reallocation.

Note that this implementation is not synchronized. If multiple threads access an ArrayList instance concurrently, and at least one of the threads modifies the list structurally, it must be synchronized externally. (A structural modification is any operation that adds or deletes one or more elements, or explicitly resizes the backing array; merely setting the value of an element is not a structural modification.) This is typically accomplished by synchronizing on some object that naturally encapsulates the list. If no such object exists, the list should be "wrapped" using the Collections.synchronizedList method. This is best done at creation time, to prevent accidental unsynchronized access to the list:

List list = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList(...));


The iterators returned by this class's iterator and listIterator methods are fail-fast: if list is structurally modified at any time after the iterator is created, in any way except through the iterator's own remove or add methods, the iterator will throw a ConcurrentModificationException. Thus, in the face of concurrent modification, the iterator fails quickly and cleanly, rather than risking arbitrary, non-deterministic behavior at an undetermined time in the future.

Note that the fail-fast behavior of an iterator cannot be guaranteed as it is, generally speaking, impossible to make any hard guarantees in the presence of unsynchronized concurrent modification. Fail-fast iterators throw ConcurrentModificationException on a best-effort basis. Therefore, it would be wrong to write a program that depended on this exception for its correctness: the fail-fast behavior of iterators should be used only to detect bugs.

This class is a member of the Java Collections Framework

Wireless Industry Growth Depends on Rich Data Services

Read what John Pallatto has to say on mobile content :

The sale of data services is going to drive the growth and profitability of the wireless telecommunications industry as voice services continue to come under increasing price pressure, said Paul Jacobs, president of Qualcomm Corp.'s wireless and Internet Group.

"Our industry is going through a fundamental change" because it is moving from selling voice service that has been commoditized to selling data services that provide added value and differentiation to operators' offerings, Jacobs said in his CTIA Wireless show keynote here on Tuesday.

"This change is rippling all through the industry" and will continue to gather momentum, he said. Wireless carriers are adding as many new services as they can, including ring tones, games, e-mail and instant "press to call" services, he noted.

Many wireless phone operators, especially those in Asia, are making plenty of money, but data services is what is going to keep them going, Jacobs said. "Voice is still a very important service, but data is going to be the thing that drives an operator's service … at a time when voice revenues are under pressure, he said.

Jacobs predicted that data services will generate as much as 25 percent of wireless operators' revenues by 2008.

HSDPA, WiMax Show Mobile Enterprise Promise

Andrew Garcia shares his findings on further improvements to the underlying GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) architecture :

HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), a software upgrade to WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), is an asymmetric data transmission technique expected to deliver a download capacity of 2M bps to 3M bps and an uplink speed of 384K bps. Cingular Wireless LLC is expected to conduct initial trials of HSDPA next year, with wider deployment in 2006.

However, getting the most buzz in the mobile-data-access industry right now is 802.16e, the mobile version of WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). WiMax has significant backing from Intel Corp., and the fixed-point variety, 802.16a, has already been ratified. The mobile version of the standard is expected to be ratified early next year, with consumer products available in 2006.

WiMax, a method of broadband wireless access, uses frequency bands between 2GHz and 11GHz and does not require line of sight to the base station. Each WiMax base station will theoretically have a range of 50 kilometers, serving thousands of concurrent connections under ideal circumstances.



802.20 is another fledgling standard designed for mobile data access. Unlike WiMax, which relies on a limited number of base stations in a metropolitan area, 802.20 is a more cell-like option that is designed for high-speed mobility and promises throughput exceeding 1M bps.

Flarion Technologies Inc., a major proponent of 802.20, has been testing its FLASH-OFDM (Fast Low-latency Access with Seamless Handoff Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) technology with Nextel Communications Inc. However, the standards proceedings are not far along, so there's no guarantee that Flarion's technology will ultimately form the basis of the standard.

Both 802.16e and 802.20 could also be hampered by carrier adoption rates. Mobile device connectivity for high user densities will require a significant infrastructure build-out, and carriers may ultimately view this deployment as an unnecessary duplication.

Of course, the unquenchable thirst for unfettered mobile access to data stems, in part, from the rapid proliferation of 802.11-based WLAN (wireless LAN) technologies in the home, the workplace and public hot spots. Indeed, the steady increase of Wi-Fi hot spots in public locations has fostered expectations of being able to connect to the Internet from anywhere. However, relying on public hot spots is a dicey proposition because coverage and throughput will be unpredictable and access could require payment to several entities managing the hot spots.

Bluetooth basics

Some talk about Bluetooth Tecnology

Bluetooth is a standard developed by a group of electronics manufacturers that allows any sort of electronic equipment -- from computers and cell phones to keyboards and headphones -- to make its own connections, without wires, cables or any direct action from a user. Bluetooth is intended to be a standard that works at two levels:

- It provides agreement at the physical level -- Bluetooth is a radio-frequency standard.
- It also provides agreement at the next level up, where products have to agree on when bits are sent, how many will be sent at a time and how the parties in a conversation can be sure that the message received is the same as the message sent.

The companies belonging to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, and there are more than 1,000 of them, want to let Bluetooth's radio communications take the place of wires for connecting peripherals, telephones and computers.

My Train journey to Amritsar

After a long time I got some time out. Last time, 4 years back, I had been to Chardham yatra that included Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. It was a great adventurous journey reaching these places.

This time too, alongwith adventurous it was more of a wonderful one, as I was accompanied by 60 odd people of our community. It was like travelling with a big family where everybody were somehow related to each other. This kind of tours allows you to enjoy the benefits of a large group (cost-wise) while enjoying a full privacy with your family.

We started on the night of 1st Oct. 2004 by Golden Temple Express. Most of us boarded from Borivali station, though some of our group members boarded it from Dadar station. Our Dadar passengers had to face some harassment at the hands of our Indian Railways TC. They were not carrying their train tickets as tickets were with us. We were boarding the train at a very next station i.e. Borivali. Anyways, when Borivali arrived my father who had the tickets instantly solved the problem. This tour was arranged and managed by him with full support from my mother on a no profit - no loss basis.

It was going to take us some 30 odd hours before we reach Amritsar. Thus, all had made a good provision for food and were carrying lots of spicy and tasty eatables along with variety of sweets. I don't remember me eating anything that my Mom had packed for us. As we roamed around inside the compartment our kind and gracious members kept offering different delicacies. Breakfast, brunches and luncheons got fussed into continuous munches. Our mouth was constantly churning things way, throughout the journey as something new always kept pouring in. We never said no.

The group comprised of - 50% more than 60 years of age, 40% - middle-aged and 10% - youngsters, including me. In train we played various card games viz., Challenge or 420, as some people call it. Housie and Antakshari also formed a good time-pass and yes, not to be left out, with lots of laughing. Of these playing Housie proved to be a great fun. At a time we used to be around 15-20 playing around 8-9 games in one session. One of the fellow passenger, who was having a quite afternoon nap, felt disturbed at the noises we were making and warned us. But, after sometime got up and desired to be part of the game. He took the role of announcing numbers. He did that with total dedication. He had a good sense of humor, which showed up while announcing numbers. This added to the fun.

You could now imagine the amount of fun we had for all 30 hrs. We reached Amritsar at 0600 hrs on Sunday, 3rd Oct. 2004. We never realised how time went. This was earlier thought to be a great boredom journey. But, it proved to be opposite. I would remember this journey forever.

Russell Beattie ideas on Bush Administration

When chatting with Pro Bush supporters, remind them of Abu Ghraib. The torture at the prison wasn't the case of "some bad apples," but rather a direct result of George Bush's policies which allowed the U.S. military to ignore and suspend the Geneva Convention and basic human rights. It's quite possible that Bush himself sanctioned the extreme measures taken at the prison, or if not, he at least did everything he could to ignore the abuses and do nothing to correct the mistakes in the military. What do you think is going to happen to American prisoners of war from now on?

Look at what Amnesty International thinks of the Human Rights Abuses at Guantánamo Bay. And look at the fact that *hundreds* of prisoners - the supposedly most dangerous criminals and terrorists in the world - have been released and are free after years of detention with out charges.

But it's not just foreigners our government is imprisoning, Jose Padilla - a U.S. Citizen - was taken away in 2002 and imprisoned without charges, directly violating the fifth amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This could happen to you.

Viruses, secure messaging, monitoring, spam, PKI, phishing

The security industry is fraught with pain points - and a solution for each one. But what's really happening in the industry? We need to observe trends in the security market from a software point of view :

- What technologies and products are buyers looking for?

- What are the un met needs? - Do investors still see opportunities in this landscape of point solutions?

- How do startups distinguish themselves and get on the CIO agenda?

- How far can new technology drive the security market?

- Will there be a single dominant security vendor in the long run?

Global Sourcing: Positive or Negative

Globalsourcing, offshoring, outsourcing call it what you want, one cannot seem to get away from these terms. Not only are these terms used interchangeably but, our news media, technical forums and world-renowned economists all have something to say about this business model. These three terms have been bandied about in Presidential campaigns, linked to labor abuses, the U.S. economic downturn and the end of Silicon Valley as we know it.

Does offshoring deliver on all of its expectations? Is globalsourcing for everyone? Is outsourcing the panacea for all business issues?

Various media sources indicate that approximately 15%-25% of fortune 500 businesses have plans to go global. VC's are establishing offices in Asia and India to secure additional portfolio companies. Driven by tax benefits, hopes of VC investment and a perception of huge savings, start-ups and existing businesses are looking to "going global" as guarantee of a healthy bottom line.

Numerous companies have underestimated the due diligence involved in establishing a global presence. Managing through the logistical challenges associated with offshoring is one of the key factors to being successful in this endeavor.

Advent of mobile broadband

The last few months have been dramatic for the wireless industry. In the United States, Verizon Wireless announced its intentions to roll out 1xEV-DO -- which was dubbed by analysts as "the shot heard around the world." Indeed, soon thereafter, Sprint and Cingular followed with announcements for 1xEV-DO and wCDMA, respectively. In Europe, carriers, finally, embraced UMTS, with initial rollouts across certain key markets. And, in Asia, carriers, especially Japanese and Korean, continued their leadership position in wireless through announcements or trials regarding satellite and broadcast TV networks.

Does this period represent the advent of mobile broadband globally? Or, is it another period of hype, reminiscent of that of 3G a few years ago? Further, why do need mobile broadband to begin with? What are users, consumers and enterprises alike, going to do with megabit connectivity while moving at high speeds? And, if this is a seminal point in the history of wireless, what does it mean for incumbent corporations and for startup companies? Which corporations are likely to win, and which are likely to lose? Most importantly for Silicon Valley, where do the opportunities exist for entrepreneurs to create new, multi-billion dollar companies?

Back to the glory of textile industry

Come 2005, and you have Indian textile industry booming again. As per WTO norms, from Jan, 1st 2005 the quota regime is moving out and India will be able to produce and export cloth as much as its capactiy. Capacity will be the limit for India. Hence, we see textile companies lining up to expand there capacities.
Its also the same on the other side of the sea. Big brands like Marks & Spencer, Gucci, etc.. are trying to reach Indian consumers on a large scale. Don't be surprised if you find their retail outlets openup next to your doorstep.
To beat the competetion our Indian companies like Arvind Mills, Siyaram, Century Textiles have also started tightening there shoes and are also coming up with there own chain of stores, to give consumers the benefits of economies of scale.
Arvind mills will require an additional workforce of 20000 workers to cater to this demand. Since it will be dificult to recruit and manage the workforce of this size in such a short time, it has started tieing up with small ancillary units around its factory in Gujarat.
This whole activity will give new boost to the growth of Indian economy. IT industry is also bound to benefit from this turnaround of textile industry since specific enterprise software solutions will be required to manage business at this scale.
Companies like ICICI infotech have already brought one of its textile industry specific ERP solutions in the market.
But still a long way to go before we as a consumer see ourselves reaping any benefits.

Indian retail investment market

Retail investors contribute to a group, where large chunk of funds are remaining untapped.

This can be proved from the TCS IPO, wherein in the market it was expected that maiximum money will pour in from the people who hold shares of other big IT companies like Infosys and Wipro. Taking note of the initial price at which TCS was offering its Re. 1 shares it was expected that they will sell their part of the existing shares and switch over to TCS.

But the analyst were proved wrong and most of the money which came in for subscribtion was fresh money from retail investors. This means that there is still a good demand for quality white paper. A whole lot of good money waiting to come in. Waiting for good value for the money.

I see now only two markets which can fetch you high returns. One is the stock market and other is the real estate market. Due to drastic drop in the interest rates people have no option but to enter this markets. Though stock market carries high amount of risk it also allows the investors with small sum to get higher returns.

A person having Rs. 1 lakh to invest cannot enter the real estate market with this sum. He is bound to enter the stock market, if he wants good return for his money.

Returns that stock market fetches is not only in terms of profit when you sell the equity, but also is in the form of dividend which is totally tax free. So this is one place which will attract good money in the future provided investors find good quality documents.

And it's a general law of economics that when the demand is high, prices are bound to increase. So in long term markets would draw much better picture.

If you are a smart investor start acting fast before the stock prices are out of reach and you do not want to miss the opportunity.

Doing MCA from Pune University

Doing MCA from the Pune University was very tough, especially when you are from a non-IT background. When I joined Pune University's MCA course in 2001 there were major changes that took place. Syllabus for the course was changed and new technolgy subject's were introduced. Then I considered myself very lucky to having joined a course,where I would get to learn, some very new and latest technologies in business.

Our senior's had a syllabus that was too old and redundant. Also, the syllabus was pretty easy to study, for the reason that they had old question papers to their availability. They enjoyed a precise reading material too. These things helped them with the kind of questions that were expected with properly defined references and books. If that's not enough, they enjoyed a privilege with passing marks of 40% only.

Things were completely opposite for our batch. To start, our syllabus was new and very generic. Keeping the time constraint in mind, we were never able to figure out on how much were we expected to dig in. As we were the first batch we had no past question papers to our availability. Many a times we ended up surfing the Internet without much of a success or sometimes no success at all.

Just finding the matter for the syllabus, consumed most of our time. Almost 2/3 rd of our semesters went searching the matter. And to make our lives worse, we had passing marks of 50%. I accept that I was a slow writer, which made things even more difficult for me. It created problems in theory subjects like marketing, corporate planning, etc. wherein, failing to attempt even one question could bring failure in that subject.

These factors resulted a drop in passing rates of the colleges. For our seniors, the passing rate always hovered above 90% while for us, the 1st semester's passing rate was just 14%, which by the end of 5th semester gradually improved to around 30%.

All's well that ends well. I am happy to have undergone through such hardships. It has made me even harder and tougher than before.

Value of diamond is more, when it has more cuts on it.

Om Ganeshay Namah

It's good that I am beginning to blog on a very auspicious day i.e Ganesh Chaturthi. The festival devoted to the elephant headed hindu deity Shree Ganesh.

I remember this day 15 years back when we began bringing Ganesh idol at our home when I was just 11 years old.

It all began when a year back before we started bringing the Ganesh idol that I had been invited by one of my friend in the neighbourhood for helping him out for the decoration proceedings at his place.

I liked that work for decoration especially the electronics parts of installing those small motor which acted as a fan behind the idol and small bulbs. Those motor fans where not available commercially then and having one for the lord was considered a great achievement.

All these gave birth of having a Ganesh idol at my home... so that I can also do all the decoration by myself. And hence I started demanding this to my parents. Actually, bringing Ganesh idol home is not a joke and many rituals are required to be performed for bringing it. And it is also a continuous process i.e. bring once, bring always. And not following this could bring suspiscion in your mind for your downfall. So bringing Ganesh idol is considered a very delicate procedure.

But, as a kid I was not aware of all these and I could just see nothing but the decorations that is associated with these festival. And I kept this in my mind all throghtout the year when next year the festival was to arrive. This time my demand for the idol to my parents was very strong. I went to the extent of fasting (generally, which I never do) for 2 long days for meeting my demand.

At last my mother had to give up and consulted a priest from the nearby temple about bringing the idol. Priest on the contrary encouraged my mother on bringing the idol and told that its a good sign of prosperity. Still, my mother was unsure about what to do.

At last on the morning of Ganesh Chaturthi day it was decided to bring the idol. But, now another problem was of availability of the idol at the shop since generally if you want to have one, you are required to book it 10 to 15 days ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi. But, 'Alls well that ends well'. Fortunately, we were able to get one of the very smallest and cutest idol.

That, filled the whole home atmosphere with joy and happiness and everybody in the house started liking the idea of bringing the idol every year and the festival still continues.

This incident makes me a person who does, what he wants to do, no matter what all odds he has to face for acheiving it. And that's called learning by experience.