ஒண்ணுமே புரியல

காலையில் ஆரம்பித்து எது எடுத்தாலும் ஒரே குழப்பம்.
1. பச்சை தண்ணீரில் குளிப்பதா அல்லது வெந்நீரில் குளிப்பதா?
2. இட்லியா அல்லது தோசையா?
3. சட்டினியா அல்லது சாம்பாரா?
4. வேர்க்கடலை சட்டினியா அல்லது உ.கடலை சட்டினியா?
5. காபியா டீயா?
6. ...
...
10 வலைப்பதிவை ஆங்கிலத்தில் அடிப்பதா அல்லது தமிழில் அடிப்பதா?
...
இவ்வாறு எதற்கெடுத்தாலும் குழம்பி போகும் எனக்கு இப்போது அடுத்து என்ன செய்வது என்று பெரிய குழப்பம்.
பஹ்ரெய்ன் வாழ்க்கை போரடித்து விட்டது. சென்னைக்குத் திரும்பி சென்று விடலாம் என்று ஒரு மனம் சொன்னாலும் சென்னை சென்ற பிறகு என்ன செய்வது என்று இன்னொரு மனம் கேட்கிறது.
24 மணி நேரம் இண்டர்நெட் தொடர்பு. குளிர் பதப்படுத்திய தங்கும் வசதி, வீட்டு பராமரிப்புக்கு வேலையாள், அங்கே இங்கே என்று வெளியே சென்று வர கார் என்று சொகுசு வாழ்க்கை பழகி விட்ட பிறகு சென்னை சென்ற பிறகு வெயிலும், பேருந்துக்கு காத்துகிடத்தலும், நெரிசலும், வேர்வையும், கொசுக்கடியும் லேசாக பயமுருத்துகிறது.
எனினும், கடந்த ஒன்பது மாத அனுபவத்தைப் பார்த்தால் பெரியதாய் வேலையில் முன்னேற்றம் கண்ட மாதிரி தெரியவில்லை. அடுத்து என்ன முடிவு அடுப்பதுன்னு நான் ரொம்ப குழம்பி போய் இருக்கிறேன்.
இதுக்கு நடுவிலே, இந்த மைத்திரி கும்பல் ஏதேதோ புரளி பேச, நம்ம வீட்டு அம்மணி ரொம்ப டென்சன் ஆயிட்டாங்க.
ஆக மொத்ததில மேட்டர் என்னன்னா, "...ஓன்னுமே புரியல உலகத்துல...என்னமோ நடக்குது, மர்மமா இருக்குது..."

...பிரைட்.

Fighter

I was thinking for today's blog. For long time, i did not get any idea for today's topic. Then it sparked. The appraisal cycle is around the corner, and it can be taken up as a topic.

The project manager always thinks that with ten women we can give birth to a child in one month. But as a developer, we believe that even twenty months are not sufficient for giving birth to a baby. Though the reality is you can give birth to one child with one woman only and it takes definitely ten months, no one is talking about reality. The project manager will talk about all the flaws in the process, blah blah blah...how he took the impact in the past and stories of all sort.

We will hear about fancy concepts and magic words like "curve fitting", "normal distribution", "system decision", "EVA" etc...but in the end, there is only one fact and the fact is that our perks are determined by a group of jokers, sitting in a far away place and without any clue till date, that there is such a guy working in one of the projects under his control.

Eight years in the field and it means that, there are so many bruises and impacts, during the journey, due to this "great" process. I was injured badly by lot of appraisers [for no mistakes for mine].

Everytime the results are out, one song comes handy for me. Believe me, it works all the time. After all, you cannot change the number; atleast boast yourself that you will fight back - Isn't it?

To all the people, waiting restlessly and biting their nails to know about the result of this year's appraisal cycle, this one is for you !

Author : Christina Aguilera.
Song : Fighter
Album : Stripped [I am not very sure]

After all you put me through
You'd think I'd despise you
But in the end, I wanna thank you
'Cause you made me that much stronger

Well I, thought I knew you
Thinking, that you were true
I guess I, I couldn't trust
Called your bluff, time is up
'Cause I've had enough
You were, there by my side
Always, down for the ride
But your, joy ride just came down in flames
'Cause your greed sold me out in shame, mmhmm

After all of the stealing and cheating
You probably think that I hold resentment for you
But, uh uh, oh no, you're wrong
'Cause if it wasn't for all that you tried to do
I wouldn't know, just how capable
I am to pull through
So I wanna say thank you
'Cause it

Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

Oh, oh, oh, oh
Ooh, yeah, ohh

Never, saw it coming
All of, your backstabbing
Just so, you could cash in
On a good thing before I'd realize your game
I heard, you're going round
Playing, the victim now
But don't, even begin
Feeling I'm the one to blame
'Cause you dug your own grave

After all of the fights and the lies
'Cause you're wanting to haunt me
But that won't work anymore
No more, uh uh, it's over
'Cause if it wasn't for all of your torture
I wouldn't know how, to be this way now
And never back down
So I wanna say thank you
'Cause it

Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

How could this man I though I knew
Turn out to be unjust, so cruel
Could only see the good in you
Pretended not to see the truth
You tried to hide your lies
Disguise yourself
Through living in denial
But in the end you'll see
You, won't, stop, me

I am a fighter and I
(I'm a fighter)
I ain't gon' stop
(I ain't gon' stop)
There is no turning back
I've had enough, yeah...

Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
(Oh, ooh yeah, ooh yeah)
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

Thought I would forget (thought I)
I remember (ohh)
'Cause I remember (ohh)
I remember

Thought I would forget (ooh)
I remember (ohh)
'Cause I remember (ohh)
I remember

Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

Embedded Software

"Embedded Software" அப்படீன்னா என்ன? என்று Jaya TV யில் ஒருவர் வினா எழுப்ப, அதற்கு ஒரு வல்லுநர் "Embedded Software" என்பது hardwareயிலேயே பொறிக்கப்படும் ஒரு software என்று சொன்னார். அதற்கு என் மனைவி என்னிடம் கேட்டார், "...பொறிக்கறதுன்னா எந்த எண்ணெய் [oil] use பண்ணுவாங்க? இதற்கு நான் என்ன பதில் சொல்ல...

வணக்கத்துடன்,
பிரைட்

Weekend, Lost ??

"...weekend is not complete until you do something crazy... "

what kind of crazy things we can do to make the weekend complete?

1. Go to office
2. Go for shopping

That is how exactly all my weekends pass by.

Off-late, the team size is reducing and the associates are returning back to the base. Last week, we sent off a guy. This week, two of them will be taking off. One of the guy gave us his "Farewell Lunch" in Georgia - Chinese restaurant near our office.

Then, i did what i do normally at office - i mean, work. No other thought, okay :-)

Today, i came across a new community in Orkut - The algorithm group. There was an active topic - algorithm to describe a number using other numbers. For example, let us take 3. It can be described as follows:
3 = 2 + 1
3 = 1 + 1 + 1
There are two possible ways to describe 3 using other numbers.

When i first glanced through the thread, it looked very simple. But, when i thought about writing a program for this, i was left clueless. Getting some GOOGLE help, i found that this combination is called Integer Partitioning. There were lot of thesis papers [writing efficient algorithm for interger partitioning] submitted on this topic. Hmm...looks interesting.

Knock your grey matters...get busy thinking!

...bright

Ganguly vs Vadivelu [Kaippullai]

Vadivelu played a role as Kaippullai in one of the tamil movie [the movie is not a big hit to remember the name, but this role was !!] .

Disclaimer: This is just an imagination of Ganguly playing the role as Kaipullai. I respect Ganguly, but he is not my favourite...the posting is intended for fun only.


P.S.: Kaipullai role became very famous that there are lot of blogspots around this topic.

Stick Cricket - Howzzat...

We had an interesting character in our project. He was a business graduate from a well reputed, high standard business school. However, for personal preferences, he accepted to do testing [i am not telling testing as a anything less, but it is not the guy's speciality area] of a freshly developed application.

I will appreciate this guy for one good aspect of him. He never minds to step out of his comfort zone to do the assigned work. I believe that is a rare quality among us. If i question myself, i doubt it, i would probably tend to bend the requirement in such a way that it falls in my comfort zone. He introduced to me the usage of SWOT analysis for personal improvement. He had his own Vision and the plans he made to achieve his visions were awesome [- dont ask me what his vision was?]

Anyways, it is not the discussion topic. This wonderful guy i am refering to, is very fond of playing games. He bought a laptop specifically to play games [and later tried very hard to sell it off - that is a different story]. Before leaving this project, the best value added service he did for us is to introduce a php based web game called Stick Cricket.

The control is very simple. Use only the four arrow keys - two of the keys [up & down] you rarely use them. There are different options to play. Most of the time, i will select the league game, but never succeeded to win the finals. My favourite teams are India & Australia. My toughest opponent is Pakistan and i had lost all my finals against this team.
Check it out. It is really addictive and contagious.

Tip : Check it out by playing this game Linux. I have tried using windows XP and Red Hat Linux. When played with FireFox in Red Hat Linux, the pace of the ball will be really challenging. It will be like setting the game level as Expert in EA Sports Cricket.

P.S.: We have a team here who will play this game atleast once in a day.

happy playing...bright

Second time in a week - Lantern's

Once again, i had to go out with the client's for a courtesy lunch. he place was selected [again by the client] as Lantern's restaurant in Budaiya. Based on my past experience with Trader Vic's, i was a little bit pre-cautious. In the case of disaster, i had a back-up plan for Jasmi's or Pizza corner.

It was a business lunch; therefore, it goes with a agenda. I prepared the documents required for the discussion items and started from office.

The first stop was a at bank. My manager had some work in the bank. We were stuck in the traffic for more than half-an-hour in the busy weekend roads, and another half-an-hour to find a place in the parking lot. After so much of tiring attempts, we managed to park the car and went to the bank, only to find out that the bank officer is out on a prior appointment. All the hassle in the parking lot went waste.

We drove another ten minutes [in fact we swam through the pool of cars] to another office to pick up a colleague. Again, we searched for some more time to find a place to park the car. The sun was scorching outside and the ac in the car was not sufficient. There is nothing irritating like sitting in a car at a speed of less than 10 kmph and watching around for an empty space to park the car.

On our way to the restaurant, we missed the landmark [burger land] and travelled for an extra 15 minutes. Finally, we reached the place.

Lantern's restaurant - it looked like a very authentic chetti nattu house. When we entered, we were greeted by a decent looking, well dressed [with saanthu pottu in the forehead] girl welcomed us and escorted to our table. The first impression was really good.

We sat next to a place which resembled like the "potti kadai" or the paan shop. The water was served in copper glass and the plates kept were copper plates. The juice corner was like the instant fruit bazaar that will be open in the empty space of a stranded van. We had a three course meal.

First round - Sweetened fresh lime soda
Main Course - naan with chicken chettinadu, dhal fry
Dessert - Kulfi

The food tasted really really good and even the thought of it makes me drool even while typing this blog. The reason may be because of the girl who served or the authentic taste of the food.

In between, the food we also had the status update on the planned agenda and all went smooth [may be not as expected, but okay manageable].

When the bill came finally, it was only like "...what is this new practice? i did not ask for it...". Believe me, i will not go back to the restaurant if i have to pay from my packet. My two days allowance is over for one time meal !!!

Leaving the money part aside, it was a nice experience and a nice appetite. Finally, it was a worth mentioning "Bon Appetite"

...bright

What Bright is?

What boredom can do to a software associate? It can really force him to do anything!

Based on some interesting article in the net, i tried to do some weird thing with my name in the net. I gave a search string as "Bright is" to google and then let the search engine to bring all the collections from the www

Here are the few of them that i found to be interesting. I have added my comments against each one of them.

• Bright is a person who has a naturalistic worldview - Hmm...let me think about my view!
• Bright is the word, the new noun - Is it?
• Bright is right for the prom - ahem! i dont have any problem but, let me check with my wife
• Bright is Brilliant - I know that ;-)
• Bright Is Bright - Can it be any more specific?
  
• Bright is the Star - Which one?
• Bright is one of my heroes - Whose?
• Bright is Lost, and Found Again - When was i lost and when was i found back?
• Bright is a friend - Really?
• Bright is singapore's future - Let me first finish my work with Bahrain.
• Bright is a dedicated commander and one of the strongest leaders - Thats a nice compliment
• Bright is a wonderful example of why people should quit writing articles - Huh, should i continue this blog anymore?

happy blogging...bright

Love & Marriage...

One day, Plato asked his teacher, "What is love? How
can I find it?" His
teacher answered, "There is a vast wheat field in
front. Walk forward
without turning back, and pick only one stalk. If
you find the most
magnificent stalk, then you have found love." Plato
walked forward, and
before long, he returned with empty hands, having
picked nothing.

His teacher asked, "Why did you not pick any stalk?"
Plato answered,
"Because I could only pick once, and yet I could not
turn back. I did find
the most magnificent stalk, but did not know if
there were any better ones
ahead, so I did not pick it. As I walked further,
the stalks that I saw were
not as good as the earlier one, so I did not pick
any in the end. His
teacher then said, "And that is love."

On another day, Plato asked his teacher, "What is
marriage? How can I Find
it?" His teacher answered, "There is a thriving
forest in front. Walk
forward without turning back, and chop down only one
tree. If you find the
tallest tree, then you have found marriage". Plato
walked forward, and
before long, He returned with a tree. The tree was
not bad, and it was not
tall either. It was only an ordinary tree, not the
best but just a good
tree. His teacher asked, "Why did you chop down such
an ordinary tree?"

Plato answered, "Because of my previous experience.
I had walked through the
field, but returned with empty hands. This time, I
saw this tree, and I felt
that it was the first good tree that I saw, so I
chopped it down and brought
it back. I did not want to miss the opportunity."

His teacher then said, "And that is marriage. You
see son Love is the most
beautiful thing to happen to a person, its an
opportunity but you don't
realise its worth when you have it but only when its
gone like the field of
stalks. Marriage like the tree you chopped, it's a
compromise; you pick the
first best thing you see and learn to live a happy
life with it."

Bored At Work? - Try this !

Source: Internet

Something you could try out if you're bored and feeling adventurous at the same time. I wish I could try these sometime - maybe I will when I don't need my job anymore!

Disclaimer: Me not responsible for the repurcussions if these are tried by the readers.

******************

1. Log on, wait a sec, then get a frightened look on your face and scream "Oh my God! They've found me!" and bolt.
2. Laugh uncontrollably for about 3 minutes. Then suddenly stop and look suspiciously at everyone who looks at you.
3. When your computer is turned off, complain that you can't get the damn thing to work. After it has been turned on, wait 5 minutes, turn it off again, and repeat the process.
4. Type frantically, often stopping to look at the person next to you evilly.
5. Work normally for a while. Suddenly look amazingly startled by something on the screen and crawl underneath the desk.
6. Ask the person next to you if they know how to tap into top-secret Pentagon files.
7. Make a small ritual sacrifice to the computer before you turn it on.
8. Bring a chainsaw, but don't use it. If anyone asks why you have it, say "Just in case..." mysteriously.
9. Light candles in a pentagram around your terminal before starting.
10. Every time you press Return and there is processing time required, pray "Ohplease ohplease ohplease ohplease," and scream "YES!" when it finishes.
11. Put a straw in your mouth and put your hands in your pockets. Type by hitting the keys with the straw.
12. Print out the complete works of Shakespeare, then when its all done (two days later) say that all you wanted was one line.
13. Put a large, gold-framed portrait of the British Royal Family on your desk and loudly proclaim that it inspires you.
14. Take the keyboard and sit under the computer. Type up your paper like this. Then go to your manager and complain about the bad working conditions.
15. Bring som dry ice. Make it look like your computer is smoking.
16. Attempt to eat your computer's mouse.
17. Bring in a bunch of magnets and have fun.
18. When doing calculations, pull out an abacus and say that sometimes the old ways are best.
19. Play Pong for hours on the most powerful computer in the place.
20. Keep looking at invisible bugs and trying to swat them.
21. Bring a small tape player with a tape of really absurd sound effects. Pretend it's the computer and look really lost.
22. Pull out a pencil. Start writing on the screen. Complain that the lead doesn't work.
23. Run into office, shout "Armageddon is here!!!!!", then calmly sit down and begin to type.
24. Stare at the person's next to yours screen, look really puzzled, burst out laughing, and say "You did that?" loudly. Keep laughing, grab your stuff and leave, howling as you go.
25. Point at the screen. Chant in a made up language while making elaborate hand gestures for a minute or two. Press return or the mouse, then leap back and yell "COVEEEEERRRRRR!" peek up from under the table, walk back to the computer and say. "Oh, good. It worked this time," and calmly start to type again.
26. Borrow someone else's keyboard by reaching over, saying "Excuse me, mind if I borrow this for a sec?", unplugging the keyboard & taking it.
27. Laugh hysterically, shout "You will all perish in flames!!!" and continue working.
28. Make a loud noise of hitting the same key over and over again until you see that your neighbor is noticing (You can hit the space bar so your fill isn't affected). Then look at your neighbor's keyboard. Hit his/her delete key several times, erasing an entire word. While you do this, ask: "Does *your* delete key work?" Shake your head, and resume hitting the space bar on your keyboard. Keep doing this until you've deleted about a page of your neighbor's document. Then, suddenly exclaim: "Well, whaddya know? I've been hitting the space bar this whole time. No wonder it wasn't deleting Ha!" Print out your document and leave.

If you haven't even smiled once after reading the above - you need to see a shrink! Trust me.

...bright

When will they serve the Salad?

...because that is the only fork i know of!


I always wondered if i will ever visit a restaurant, for a dinner, that closely resemble to the ones that are shown in the movies.

For once, i had that opportunity. Last night, from office, we went for a client hosted dinner at Trader Vic's in Ritz Carlton, Manama - Bahrain.

I should admit, it was a cultural shock for me - for the ambience, for the stewards, for the food that was served, and more than anything for the amount of alcohol that was served - for a moment, i just forgot that i am in middle east where a female exposing her body and alcohol is considered "HARAM".



Leaving the cultural shocks aside, i was waiting for a 'Bon Appetite'.
First Round - Drinks - Ordered a Coke - it turned out finally that the best food served was coke, as the restaurant did not have any contribution to this stuff.
Second Round - Starters - Five plates of a variety of dishes were served. The manner in which they were served was good and attractive;
Third Round - Main Course - Another round of disaster. how they served was good, not the what...
Break - After the main course, we took a break and went for photo session. Lot of photos were taken during this time. I have to wait and see if the photos had come out well.
Dessert - We were served with chocolate icecream, strawberry and mint leaves. This was better compared to anything else.
Finishing touch - Coffee and Mint Chocolate.

Added to all of the above, i was sitting in the middle of chain smokers who gave their non-stop performance throughout the meal that caused severe head-ache and eye irritation for me.



This dinner also happened to be a typical get together. We went all the way to the dinner gathering, again to discuss and chat within the same group. Ofcourse, that is the comfort zone for anyone and who will dare to experiment to come out of their zone during the chow time !

Overall, it was a disaster for me and it was expected.

i was waiting for a moment to say "...slick slippery suckers..." and it never happened :-)

...bright

My First J2EE application

Ahem ! I did not write my own J2EE application, but followed a tutorial and typed the code exactly as it was given in the tutorial. It took me more than a week before i managed to complete the coding, build the package an deploy it on application server.

I used Eclipse-jBoss ide and JBoss Application Server. I have selected this because i dont want to depend on any big brand name like WSAD or RAD [The latest version is called RAD only, i included WSAD just to show off].

After a little over 7 years of mainframe experience, i am finding it very difficult to come out of the structured programming paradigm. Now, i can understand how the well experienced MVS/OS390 community will feel about migrating to the Linux world.

For the last few days, one problem was breaking my head. The solution was simple and probably an oversight. But, the amount of time spent to uncover the issue was huge.

Problem:

14:54:24,733 INFO [EARDeployer] Init J2EE application:
file:/home/bright/jboss-4.0.3SP1/server/default/
deploy/FiboApp.ear
14:54:25,444 WARN [verifier] EJB spec violation:
Bean : Fibo
Section: 22.2
Warning: The Bean Provider must specify the fully-qualified name of the Java class that implements the enterprise bean's business methods in the element.
Info : Class not found on 'tutorial.ejb.FiboBean': Unexpected error during load of: tutorial.ejb.FiboBean, msg=tutorial/ejb/FiboBean (Unsupported major.minor version 49.0)

14:54:25,446 ERROR [MainDeployer] Could not create
deployment: file:/home/bright/jboss-4.0.3SP1/server/
default/tmp/deploy/tmp18511FiboApp.ear-contents/FiboEJB.jar
org.jboss.deployment.DeploymentException: Verification of Enterprise Beans failed, see above for error messages.
at org.jboss.ejb.EJBDeployer.create(EJBDeployer.java:575)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke
(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke
(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)

...

Solution:
set JAVA_HOME to the path locating the jdk 1.5 version

Pretty much impressive, isnt it? Huh...:-(

...bright

King, Jack or Joker ?

image source: The internet.

1. King
2. Jack of all Trades
3. Joker

If you want to be a king, keep others as jokers - read it somewhere as a business strategy.

Based on some of the recent happenings at my work, Am I disturbed? Am I confused? Am I in a cross road? May be I am - but, whose problem is it anyway? Even if i am not a king, i dont want to be a joker.

PS: it is easy to say that - dont take anything to the heart - in reality, it is difficult to practise.

To add a photo to the profile

All Good Hopes @ Cape Town

Same time last year, we were exploring the southern most tip of the Dark Continent. Recently, i read the blog written by my colleague who accompanied me to Cape Town and it refreshed my memories of our stay in Bloubregstrand, Cape Town, ZA. I am copying the content from my friend's blog here as i dont believe i can do a better job than what he had achieved in picturing the beauty of Cape Town. As a preface to the original blog: We stayed in a sea view apartment in a place called Bloubergstrand - translated as the Blue Mountain - the best place i have ever stayed. We had a good view of the Table Mountain - one of the famous land mark in Cape Town - and Robbin Island from our apartment window. This was my first consulting assignment code named 'mission difficult'. The canal walk, VA Water Front, the stroll in the Atlantic beach, KFC, Nandoos, what not...We had all comforts provided by our company and special thanks to the management for making it a wonderful experience. Now, enjoy the blog given below. ...bright PS : I have attached image of Table Mountain and few pictures of Chapman's peak drive - the best drive i have had till date and probably for this life !

Time brings changes and on its way it archives fragmented memories. If I rollback 2 Years from today and try to peep through my Window I would be touched by the aromatic breezes from the Table Mountain and would be greeted by the Symphonic waves of Atlantic.

When i was asked to go to South Africa to work with Old Mutual, I had never expected that I was chosen to watch the best part of the world and i had never dreamt that I was going to be put up on an elegant marine drives of Atlantic before the Table Mountain. On the day when I landed in Cape Town and entered my apartment I realized that there could be places like my apartment also in this world, the most elegant place i have ever lived in my life. In my two months stay i had never felt bored watching the Table mountain and its moods, the phase at which the amazing landscape changes its moods is a lifetime experience to Witness. Sitting with a Cup of Coffee in my apartment patio and looking at the water surfers, boating and canoeing in the rolling Atlantic waves and watching the clear sunsets, I had never realised how my weekends were rolled. I never think that any one can substantially describe the Amazing Sunsets and Moonsets dipping in to the Atlantic.(First time in my life I saw the Moon setting).

I can never forgot the day when we climbed the table mountain in a cableway to experience the spectacular view of Cape town and Atlantic from the mountain top. Our drive to the tip of African Continent through the Chapman’s peak drive is an exotic experience, every turn on the mountanious drive reveals an astonishing landscape to endorse in our lifetime album. Our last drive in SA, to the wine Gardens at Stellenbosh was a pleasing trip and wine tasting at wine yards toasts taste to our lifes.

On the day when we were leaving Cape town, we were not just Nostalgic, we had a feeling that we were missing our home town. Friday night dinners, evening walks on the marine drive, weekend trips and shopping’s, KFC on the Marine drive, 7 - 11 store, Old Mutual staff, Parties, Table mountain, Atlantic, Canal walk shopping’s and last but not the least our successful project and the project team were all Golden memories that we carried from the "Cape of Good hopes "- Cape town. With a heavy heart we took off from Cape Town and had a final glimpse of Table Mountain from the South African Skies.

Office Boy

In our office, we have an office boy to serve coffee / tea to the clients [when they come for meetings] and to the staff [sometimes]. The way he makes coffee is little strange and i thought of printing it in my blog.

He will make a paste with coffee creamer, instant coffee granules, sugar and little condensed milk. He will mix the contents to form the paste with full strength and all his effort. He will not even listen to what other's say when he is making this paste. His full concentration will be on getting the paste correct. Once the paste is formed to his expected form, he will add hot water and make coffee. The coffee tastes good [even when we try with the same ingredients, we could not make it as efficient as he does]. When we go for meeting, we will wait for his coffee more than anything. Our clients plan for a meeting in our office mainly because of this coffee guy and they call it as a 'Chemical Solution' - because they had also tried the same combination and never succeeded. Few more days, we can even find a 'Mullah coffee Fan Club' in the orkut community - what can we say?

Now, this guy is a perfect candidate to apply for CMM level 2 [even if not for anything more]. Based on my simple understanding of this model, he has defined a process for coffee making and he is capable of repeating the process over and again at any time without any flaw.

That raises a question back to me...as a matured organization, we cannot achieve this form of repeatability [and still we aim for level 5, which is a different story] - even if it as simple as a two page document or a few lines of code !

Lighter Side:
Similar to his formula of making coffee, he also has a strange practice of using the available resources. He will use one tea spoon per cup and assign that spoon exclusive to the cup. To simplify the statement, if there are three spoons available, then he will make only three cups of coffee at a time.
One day we were sitting in a meeting [about 12 associates]. He was serving only five coffees at a time and between the servings, he took lot of time. Later, we found that, since there were only 5 spoons available, he was not able to make more than 5 cups of coffee at a time and it took lot of time [three rounds] for him to prepare and serve the 12 cups of coffee. We asked him why he is not using the same spoon to make more coffee...in reply, we just got a 'biiiiig smile' from him and we were left clueless if he understood what we said / asked.

[...and that is why he cannot be eligible for any other level of CMM]

For information, CMM levels are as follows: [Refer www.sei.cmu.edu]
1. Initial Level
2. Repeatable Level
3. Defined Level
4. Managed Level
5. Optimizing Level

Height of Frustration

An excerpt from the book : Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

when women complain about problems, they merely want their problems to be acknowledged, and to feel listened to. When men complain about problems, they are asking for solutions. John Gray suggests that offering solutions to a woman who is complaining will frustrate her, and make her feel as if she's not being listened to. Just sympathising with a man will be similarly frustrating for him, since he's asking for your advice, not your sympathy.

Imagine a situation:

• you are a marsian;
• you are very much frustrated at work;
• you are affected by a feeling of being left behind;
• you are getting a feeling that you are not contributing much to your work;
• you are idle;

After a lot of thinking, you finally decide to discuss the matter with your manager. With all the hopes, you explain your situation and in return...

Your manager with a grin, replies back to you,
"...even i am undergoing the same situation. Atleast you are coming and expressing it to me. Where will i go and express?..."

As a marsian, what will be your reaction?

...bright

Karuththu Kandasamy & Kaipullai calling...

Check this link :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgKKrYZ29eA&search=Vadivelu
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=ViVek+comedy&search_type=search_videos



If you are interested in some hilarious blogs:
http://gundakkamandakka.blogspot.com/
http://vavaasangam.blogspot.com/
http://kaipullai.blogspot.com/

The Game of Chess

I am attaching the final board of the chess game played with my colleague. I felt that the game had a better chance for the "white" to win. However, due to some mistakes, it was finally in favour of "black". The moves are meant for later analysis [during some time in life, when we really wanted to kill time this will come handy]

[Date "2006.05.15"]
[White "raj"]
[Black "Bright"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Time "18:48:26"]
[EventDate "2006.05.15"]
[Termination "normal"]

1. d4 e6 2. Bf4 Qf6 3. Qd2 Na6 4. Nh3 Bb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. Qe3 Nh6 7. Qe5 Ng48. Qxa5 O-O 9. Nd2 Qh4 10. g3 Qf6 11. f3 Nh6 12. Ne4 Qg6 13. Nhg5 d6 14. d5 e515. Be3 f5 16. Nd2 f4 17. gxf4 exf4 18. Bd4 Qxg5 19. Ne4 Qh4+ 20. Kd1 Rf521. h3 Bd7 22. Rg1 Rg5 23. Rg4 Rxg4 24. fxg4 Rf8 25. g5 Nf5 26. Bg2 Ng327. Nf2 Nf5 28. Ng4 Ne3+ 29. Nxe3 fxe3 30. Bxe3 Qg3 31. Kd2 Qxg2 32. b4 Re833. b5 Qxd5+ 34. Bd4 Nc5 35. Qxa7 h5 36. Rf1 Qe6 37. Rf2 Ne4+ 38. Ke1 Nxf239. Kxf2 Qxe2+ 40. Kg1 Bxh3 41. Bf2 Qf1+ 42. Kh2 Qg2# 0-1

பக்ரைனில் ஒரு டீக்கடை - Part I

இந்தக் கதையில் வரும் கதாபாத்திரங்கள் அனைத்தும் வெறும் கற்பனையே...யாரையாவது குறிப்பது போல் தோன்றினால் அதற்கு நான் பொறுப்பல்ல!!

நிறைய பணம் படைத்த ஒருவர் சென்னையில் இருந்து மதுரை செல்ல வேன்டும். அதற்காக அவர் ஒரு பெரிய மென்பொருள் அலோசனை கடைக்கு சென்றார். அந்த கடை ஒரு மேனஜரை நியமனம் செய்தது. அந்த மேனஜர் மிக பெரிய அறிவாளி. அவர் அந்த பணக்காரரை சேலத்திற்கு கூட்டிச் சென்று இது தான் நீங்க போக வேன்டிய இடம் என்று சொல்லி ஏமாற்றினார். அந்த புத்திசாலி பணக்காரர் திடீரென்று என்ன இங்க மதுரன்னு ஒண்ணுமே இல்ல அப்படீன்னு கேட்க...திக்கு முக்காடி போன நம்ம மேனேசரு பணக்காரரை கொண்டு போயி திருச்சில இறக்கி விட்டுட்டார். ரொம்ப சந்தோச பட்ட பணக்காரர் நம்ம மேனேசருக்கு ஒரு பெரிய பரிசு வேற கொடுத்திருக்கார். ஆக மொத்தத்துல மேட்டர் என்னன்னா பணக்காரர் போக வேண்டிய எடத்துக்கும் போகல...ஆனா நம்ம மேனேசரு "Value Added Service" அப்படீன்னு சொல்லி "Gift" வேற வாங்கிட்டாரு !

இன்னைக்கு இந்த பொலம்பலோட முடிச்சிக்கிறேன்.
...பிரைட்.

A Wife's Guide - For Dummies

Source: The internet!

Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are concerned about his needs.

Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favourite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.

Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. Run a dustcloth over the tables.

Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by.

Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too.

After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum.

Encourage the children to be quiet.

Be happy to see him.

Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.

Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.

Your goal: To try and make sure your home is a place of peace, order, and tranquillity where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

Don't greet him with complaints and problems.

Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.

PS : For her, a quick solution for 'A Husband's guide' will be to replace all her with him and She with he. But, that is the point, anyways :-)

மாநகரம் . சென்னை மாநகரம் . தலைநகரம் . நல்ல தலைநகரம்

திரையில் ஒரு காட்சி.
எங்கும் கற்கள் சிதறி கிடக்கிறது. ஒரு பக்கம் டி வி எஸ் 50 வண்டி நெருப்பில் எரியுது. அந்த பக்கம் பாத்தா ஒரு சுமோ வண்டி நொறுங்கி கிடக்கிறது. எங்கும் ஆட்கள் ஓடுகிறார்கள். எங்கும் போர்கோலம்.
இது என்ன?
1. ஒரு ரவுடிஸம் பற்றிய மசாலா தமிழ் பட படப்பிடிப்போ?
2. ஈராக் நாட்டில் நம் மக்கள் படும் வேதனையோ?

இல்லவே இல்லை.

இது ஜெயா டிவியில் காட்டப்பட்ட தமிழ்நாட்டின் தலைநகரமான "சிங்கார சென்னை". "மாநகரமா" அல்லது "மாநரகமா" என்று பார்ப்பவரை கலங்கச் செய்யும் ஒரு தோற்றம்.

ஏனிந்த மாற்றம்? ஆட்சி மாறினால் "நகரம்" "நரகம்" ஆகுமா?"மாஸ் மீடியா" என்று சொல்லப்படும் தொலை தொடர்பு ஊடகத்தில் இருப்பவர்கள் சிறிது பொறுப்புடன் நடப்பார்களா? என்ற ஏக்கமுடன்...பிரைட்

டிவியில் கண்டு உள்ளத்தை உலுக்கிய சில:
1. கல்லுரி மாணவியர் சென்ற பேருந்தை நெருப்புக்கு இரை ஆக்கியதால் மாணவியின் மரணம்.
2. குஜராத் நில நடுக்க சேதங்கள்.
3. கொடுங்கோலன் புஷ் ஆல் சின்னா பின்னமாக்கப்பட்ட இராக்.
4. சுனாமியால் பாதிக்கப்பட்ட பகுதிகள்.
5. இப்போது சிங்கார சென்னை.....

....இன்னும் எத்தனையோ?

Tamil Nadu 2006 - After Election

Let us just go through this imaginative narration.

Preface:
The creator of this world [aka GOD] keeps track of everyone and every activity on earth for The Judgement Day. He maintains a timer that ticks or move its arm once for every lie / crime committed by the person.

Mainline:
Let us see what happens when three sample human faces the lord for their final judgement.
1. Gandhi - GOD tells him that his timer ticked only once when he ate meat.
2. Nehru - GOD tells him that his timer ticked once when he lifted his father's pen and again when he refused to hand over the ruling power of India to a minority person - during the time or partition.
3. This third person GOD himself was shocked.. He said that he could not keep track of the time the timer ticked and it is ticking so fast that he is using it as CEILING FAN in his office.

Any guesses on who is this third guy? None other than 'The Editor of JAYA NEWS'. The other party sworned in today and the news is depicting a picture of Tamilnadu which looks like the ruined IRAQ. There are interviews from men and women who complains to the reporter that "...they are afraid of moving in the streets..."

Come on guys, show some decency in a mass media like television. What are you showing? You are in the streets of Baghdad when there is a suicide attempt every now and then and there are ambushes to evade the alien armed forces. You are in your own state in your own country. The news you show on the TV will bring fear to even a hard core chennaiite - chennai lover - like me. Show some mercy and give some god damn respect for the other ruling party and see how it goes. Have the development of the state and the people in your manifesto rather than just spit fires on the other person.

...bright

தேர்தல் நாள் - மே 8, 2006

இன்று தமிழ்நாட்டில் தேர்தல் !

படித்த அனைவரும் தங்கள் விரலுக்கு கறை பட்டால்
மக்களின் வாழ்க்கை கறை மறையும்...

என்னுடைய முதல் தமிழ் பதிப்புடன்,
பிரைட் இன்பசாகரன் காசிமணி.

Tamilnadu election 2006

I have been following the Jaya tv for tamilnadu election news. As the saying goes, "Lies, more lies, statistics and then...Jaya News". The breaking news in all the channels and media today is the death of Mr. Pramod Mahajan. But, for Jaya TV, the news is prioritised only in the following order:
1. amma
2. amma
3. amma
..
nn. more amma news.

Before finishing the news, they told about Mr. Pramod Mahajan's demises. There was no video clipping also.

When i say about the election fiasco, i should also mention about two clowns.
1. Mr. Subramanya Swamy
2. Mr. V. Gopalaswamy [aka Vaiko]

While the former is known for his comedian role for every election [he is planning to file a case against Brahma - the hindu GOD for creation, for creating human beings is a latest rumor] we can push him aside.

Mr. Vaiko is one of the most affected person in amma's regime. He was imprisoned under POTA and he was not even allowed to meet anyone. When he was released, he went straight to Mr. M. Karunanidhi and wept like a girl. Now, he is in the AIADMK [amma] alliance, and hence he bluffs with lot of good-for-nothing news.

In 70s, when MGR's ulagam suttrum valiban movie was released, MK forced lot of restrictions for the release of the movie.

1. When this happened, where was this Mr. Vaiko and what was he doing at that time?
2. Did Mr. Vaiko joined amma for the development of Tamilnadu? or for a better cause? No - he joined the alliance because he wanted more electoral seats.

All i am hearing is Jaya news and hence i cannot comment on the mishaps on the other side. It only appears that the other side is greener, but not necessarily true.

Leaving all the above aside, the fact is this : no matter we get a Head or Tail, we still Lose!!!

...bright

Musings of a simple man

Today it was a busy day. had been stuck with AIX for sometime to setup the environment for oracle installations. Still struggling with the same.
After a series of searches and attempts, managed to link the virtual test license and the performance tester to test the application. one of the achievements of today.
UCML - it means user community modeling language. [i wrongly mentioned it in my another blog]
i think i am getting addicted to this blog world. i was going through the blogs of kaipullai.blogspot.com, thavam.blogspot.com, priya arun, aswathi - they are all god damn bloggers. i really really envy them. they are really great :-)
there was a blog which talks about the "losing touch" not exactly in the same meaning, but it is about how the electronic means of communication reduces the thrill of receiving mail from the loved near and dear ones [email first eliminated hand written mails; instant messenger now replaces the email]. there is another blog which was mentioning about a nice hand written mail received from the friend...and so it goes. the blog is becoming my daily part of life.

Today, i received an unexpected call from my appa. when i did not expect their call and i receive it, i become a little tensed. then, it was just a casual call and amma told me that they will not come for the video chat on friday. Doctor had adviced to have angiogram done for my father. So they will be going to the MMM [Madras Medical Mission]. I remembered :"...leave the parents, go to a distant land and live a comfortable life, take photograph in front of the new car and send the scanned photo - this is not what i wanted in life; even if it is a simple life, stay with my parents and take complete care of them is what i wanted..." a beautifully written dialogue from vijay's vaseegara.

...bright

Labor day in Bahrain

Today was Labor Day. As per the ILO guidelines, it is an international holiday. But, we have to work today...so, i went to office as usual.
The first news i heard was about some friction between the Linux system administrator and the Oracle apps administrator. There was some mount and volume space problem, and the spark ignited. Last night at 11:30 pm, they quarrelled with each other. But, luckily the night sleep had set right the mood for both of them and things were normal in the morning.
I was going through the weblogs as usual. One of the interesting blogger is Priya Arun. Her blogs, the comments on those blogs and the responses will be very interesting. So, i am a constant watcher of her blog. Through this blogger, i linked to one more blogger from UAE. She was also linked to me through Ranjith. Still, I could not add her into my friends list. Anyways, it is just a time pass.
Later, i mailed to my ramalinga mama and karpagam. Started working on the presentation. I have come across a new concept called UCML - User Characteristics Modeling Language. The standards seem to be promising for performance tuning assessment. Let me see how it can be used. If i can build a model and patent it within my group [as my unique selling quality] it will be great; the project timeline is getting closer and i need to achieve this within this timeline.
In the evening, Salavudin, his wife sumayya and their son Altaf came to our apartment. They were tripping around Bahrain and on the way stopped by our place and visited us. We just had some catch up on the project and US dreams. They left in few minutes.
So, today's achievements are : Adding a new blogger in my favourite list. Learning a new concept called UCML.
The coming days are going to be highly demanding,
so long...bright