Bangalore-based InstaColl launched an application called Live Documents, which is a hybrid online-offline office suite of applications with features similar to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.


Instacoll is doing a controlled release, but within the next 2 to 3 weeks will make it available to everyone across the globe. Individual users can access this for free, till the company decides on the pricing. However, the enterprise version will be charged.

Besides the online tool, there is the Live Documents Plug-in, which is an optional client that you can download - the client converts Microsoft Office into a smart client that is web-enabled and provides collaborative capabilities within the context of familiar desktop applications. The desktop client also facilitates offline access to your documents - any changes that you make to a Live Document in offline mode is cached locally and automatically synchronized to the server the next time you go online.

Check out the site here.

"Remember Me" is a popular feature provided by many Web sites that simplifies the sign in process -- and provides a better user experience -- by challenging a user only once for credentials. When selected by a user upon signing in, this feature enables the browser to "remember" the user's identity on subsequent visits to the site. User credentials remain stored as cookies in the browser until either the cookies expire, or the user signs out of the site.

This article explains how you can realize the Remember Me feature on WebSphere Portal with security enabled, and shows a sample implementation of the steps involved.

Recently, I was watching the movie "Ratatouille" and towards the end of the movie, the food critic Anton Ego, publishes a review was really captivating and insightful. Here goes the review

In many ways, the work of a critic is very easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and there self to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism which is fun to write and read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful then our criticism designating it so.
...

All this got me thinking about the so called Thought Leaders in their respective fields and how easy is for them to critique. Its only, when you get yourself are in deep shit, hands full and people running all over you, you realize the importance of even the average piece of work you get working, that has so much meaning for the business.

IBM Redbooks have released the draft of the latest "Portal Application Development using WebSphere Portlet Factory". Download the book from here.