I used the Sun Java API Docs online when I used to code in Java: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/

And the for Ruby, Ruby Brain is a nice place – http://www.rubybrain.com/ and http://www.railsbrain.com/

Even for DB, the MySQL API docs are good: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/index.html

But today I was introduced to Got API!
You get most of the stuff you are looking for, all in one place. They have CSS/XML/Javascript, even the famous AJAX libraries, C++, Java, Ruby/Rails… you name it! And a nice interface too.

Check it out: http://www.gotapi.com

Ok Ok Ok… I’ve not been posting regularly. Mostly a fault of companies like BMW, Nintendo and Amazon…

Yeah, so since my last blog, I got a BMW 3-series, an Amazon Kindle (as a gift, that too!) and a Wii. So life’s been busy… driving, reading new stuff and playing fun games! Oh and the introduction of a new person… who keeps me, let’s say, engaged?

So all that and stuff like what-I’m-going-to-write-about now is basically what is keeping me from writing more blogs… Believe me, I hardly get to stop a think a moment nowadays… Time’s just flying… what with nice increase in office work too. Thank God I like it – I would have stopped coming to office otherwise. No, really!

So I have turned to micro-blogging… Don’t get me worng, I love to write here… but where’s the time? So I turned to twitter recently. If you haven’t seen that yet – try it out – it’s the latest fad. Like sms-ing and blogging… It’s called Twitting! I mean it – go to twitter right now and see the demo video. It’s cool… and as most people believe, it’s the future… of smsing/blogging/mailing all-in-one.

So if you still wanna see my updates – whatever handful you are anyway – get on to twitter and find me (arnab_deka) and follow me. I’ll still continue to write blogs, but they will be rare – like this.

So today I came across this new shiny thing called zembly.

I think I blogged about : http://heroku.com/ The first online IDE I saw… but that won’t interest most of you as it was only for RubyOnRails.

Look at the new zembly: http://zembly.com/

So I had lots of ideas for Friday night – called up lots of people to accompany me into movie, tennis or just-going-somewhere. But no one was free – everyone wanted to do either Saturday and Sunday – which is fine.

So I settled down with a nice movie. And I felt like pizza – last time I had was in New York! Long time…

Checked out Domino’s and Pizza Hut (I usually like Pizza Hut better – and that they serve Pepsi helps – my close friends know I’d pick Pepsi over Coke any day – although now I hardly have any of them!). But soon figured out that Pizza Hut cannot deliver at my place – which is odd, considering I am smack in the middle of Seattle downtown! Anyway saw that Domino’s did.

And then the cool experience started. Just use their Web order process once – even if you are not a fan of Pizzas!

Ordering was cool! You could edit your pizza in all sorts of cool ways (add this topping only to l/right/all sides, add that too etc.) Nice!

But the best part was after ordering – Just after I confirmed the order a “Tracker” dashboard appeared. And it showed five stages – Order Placed, Prep, Bake, Box and Delivery.

Each stage had a width proportonate to the time it would take (estimated). And as soon as a stage is done it turns Green, the next stage starts blinking and a status message appears at the bottom saying something like “Matthew put your pizza into the oven at 9:03 PM”

Cool ha? Don’t believe me – see the attached screen shots – I was so amazed I had to take the screen shots!

Of course there was a glitch with it – after the 4th stage it went back to the 3rd! And I was not so worried about the pizza as I was helping out these guys carry this super idea. So I called them up (and the direct number just flashes on screen – no searching for it) and let them know.

Definitely one of the best web experiences I’hve had in the recent times. Now that I work in a web-based company I’ve started noticing these things and have become a good netizen!

So this definitely counts among the better Web 2.0 experiences I’ve had recently. Others include Google Map’s public transport times. So you just enter the Source and the Destination (which I have got stored) and click the “take public transport” – voila – it shows you for the current time 3 options for you to take. Like go to this bus stop (walk 2 min) take the bus # 522 at 8:32 PM and get down at this stop (at 8:43 PM), walk home (1 min) and you are done!

And Amazon’s “we’ll-call-you-back” thing! Everyone whose tried calling customer care anywhere knows how much a pain it is to wait for someone to answer (after all the music or the mech voices _heliping_ you out). So you go to Amazon’s customer care page – and they’ll say – ok you can call us here at this number (and then identify yourself and give the customer care dude your 12-digit Order #). Or give us a number (or most of the time just select it from a drop down) and we’ll call you back! Right now.

And I was amazed – my phone started ringing the moment I clicked “call me” – and since I had used that feature the dude knew who I was and which order I was talking about. Less hassle everyone!

Things like these make me feel good about what I do – it’s exciting to be part of the Web 2.0 experience and specially when you are a part of making it!

Which reminds me – voting for the Best 100 Web 2.0 apps is on (alas I did not see Domino’s there) – but you can vote for your best apps. It ends March 31st – so go do it now!