Unsung heroes

FIFA fever is everywhere. The heat is one...who will lift the world cup 2006. My vote is for Germany. Let us see.

While i was watching the game and going through the articles, it stuck me. Why is it always the people who scored the goal come to the limelight?. All the praises and accolades go to the players who scored goals for them...why not the equal importance is given to the single soul who spent the entire time defending all the goals against them.

I wanted to stress more emphasis on people who are "unsung heroes". I am a representative from the IT world. In IT worlds, there is a group of poor community called the System Administrators - The OS, DB, TP administrators. I have worked as the DB administrator for a big insurance customer in US.

This is not the place to discuss about what happens in a day-to-day life of a DB administrator. The DBA will think about a problem in all possible dimensions and come up with a procedure to streamline the tasks to be performed that will simplify the programmer's role. But in the last, when it works out well, the credit goes to the programmer. If there is any goof up [even if it is a -805 which is a typical bind issue that the programmer left out], the first person to get the blame will be administrator.

When you highlight these things, it gets covered under the "Expected out of the role". Till date, i dont understand this concept called "Expected out of the role".

The success of these unsung heroes are when their work did not bring any drastic change to the way how others prefer it to be. To example it simply, when you migrate a Database from V1 to V2, you must also make sure that the programmers dont feel the difference [except for additional features and performance] when they start using the system.

When i thought about this also realised that, it is not only the team of 11 or the IT world that ignore those people who work hard so that the rest of the team dont suffer much, it is everywhere. From our very home, the colony, the society, the region, the country.

How many times do we realise all the efforts put by our parents to make our life comfortable?
How many times do we thank the public works department labour who get dirt to clean our dirts?
How many times do we think about the people who spend sleepless nights guarding the walls, so that we can sleep comfortably in our home?

What can we do to change the way things are happening now? I dont know. Atleast try to make the next generation to give the unsung heroes their dues...

...bright

American Family

During my college days, Going to America was a dream. During those times, we [whoever had the dream but never believed it will come true] used to console ourself with a cheap american joke.

Husband : Where are the children?
Wife : Your children and my children are playing with our children.

I never believed i will ever get a chance to land in America, until i landed in JFK airport in 2000 for a short term assignment. My comments on the above jokes changed slowly after i started interacting with the US customers...mainly my first two managers.

But recently, when i was watching a mega serial in Jaya TV, i was remembered of those good old days comedy.

The lead character has a child from her first husband and more children from the brother of her first husband. Now, this guy dont know if he is the father of another lady's child, but she claims so. There is another female side character and she dont know who is the source of her pregnancy. She believes to be someone who never accepts. They are even discussing about DNA mapping to identify the right father. Wow...what a way to introduce about DNA mappings to the general public.

I dont know how people will get all these kind of ideas...Way to go, people !

...bright

cygwin - what is it?

One more interesting stuff that i discoverd today from the internet world - cygwin.

You can get the feel of Linux [I don’t understand what it means, but still] using this freeware called cygwin.

This utility creates a bash shell for you and hence you can start working with ls and vi instead of the old dir and Edit command [but then, how frequently do we use these commands in DOS command prompt is a very good question. Let me think – no idea].

Anyways, I found it interesting because, when people work with Linux, they want the windows applications to be ported on linux and hence there is a wine utility. The idea has to be mutual. So, when people are working in windows, they want to port the linux utilities to windows – they have cygwin. Cool, isnt it?

Anyways, I am still not a power user to claim that 'cygwin rocks' or to start using the grep command for searching a word [instead of using my windows explorer] or vi eidtor to type a text file [instead of using notepad in one click].

...bright

முகமூடிகள் - எத்தனை காலம் தான் ஏமாற்றுவார்...

சில நாட்களுக்கு முன், நண்பர் ஒருவர் மனிதர்க்ளின் முகமூடி பற்றி பதிவிட்டிருந்தார். அதற்கு நானும் பின்னூட்டம் எழுதி இருந்தேன். ஆனால் இன்றைய நிலைமையில் முகமூடி தான் வாழ்க்கை என்பது போல் ஒரு நிலை.
வேலை செய்யும் இடத்தில் நம்மை ஒருவர் கண்காணித்துக் கொண்டிருந்தால் தான் வேலை செய்வதாய் பாவ்லா காட்டுபவர்கள் ஒரு வகை. அதற்கு மேலே ஏதோ அத்தகையோர் தான் இந்த உலகத்தையே தாங்கி நிற்பது போல் தோற்றம் ஏற்படுத்துவது. அதையும் நம்பும் அப்பாவி மேனேஜர்கள் மற்றொரு வகை. எதை குற்றம் என்று சொல்ல.
என் அலுவலகத்தில் Appraisal System என்று ஒரு வழக்கம் உண்டு. சரியான முறையில் பயன்படுத்தினால், இது உண்மையில், கடந்த 12 மாதமாக எப்படி வேலை செய்தேன் என்று எனது கண்காணிப்பாளர் [appraiser] என்னை அளவீடு செய்து, அதன் மூலம் கம்பெனிக்கு நான் எவ்வளவு முக்கியமானவன் என்று கருதி, அதற்கேற்ப என்னுடைய compensation package வழங்க வேண்டும்.
ஆனால், உண்மையில் நடப்பது, appraisal period ல் கடைசி நாட்களில் யார் appraiser ன் மனதுக்கு பிடித்த மாதிரி நடந்து கொள்கிறார்களோ, அவர்களுக்கு சாதகமாக அமைந்து விடுவது. உண்மையாக உழைப்பவருக்கும், நடிப்பவருக்கும் நடக்கும் போட்டியில், உழைப்பாளி வழக்கம் போல் ஏமாந்து விடுவார்.
இந்த நிலை இருக்கும் வரை, appraiser இருக்கும் சமயங்களில் சும்மாவேனும் இரவு 10 மணி வரை உட்கார்ந்து கொண்டு உலகமே தன்னால் தான் சுழலும் என்று படம் காட்டிக் கொண்டு, appraiser இல்லாத சமயங்களில், சாவதானமாக 11 - 11.30 மணிக்கு office வந்து, 4 - 4.30 மணிக்கு வீட்டிற்கு கிளம்பி விடும் அவலம் தொடர தான் செய்யும்.
பழைய பாடலில் வருவதைப் போல்..திருடராய் பார்த்து திருந்தா விட்டால், திருட்டை ஒழிக்க முடியாது...

...பிரைட்

When Tomorrow Comes

Button technology will be the status symbol. Science will aspire man to ensure that his physical effort was minimised. From his cushion bed at home to the work and back to his cushion bed, he will be 'facsimiled' using the techniques provided by quatum mechanics [Check Michael Crichton's TimeLine] .

The man will be shrunk into a pear shaped dro0ping body with two tiny legs capable of just holding him.



Lighter side: One of my friend in Bahrain is already dreaming about such a facility to do direct transfer from his sofa at home to his seat in the office and back. Plus, facility to feed him whenever he feels hungry !

The following information i got forwarded from my friend.

Source : The internet

Our communication - Wireless
Our dress - Topless
Our telephone - Cordless
Our cooking - Fireless
Our youth - Jobless
Our food - Fatless
Our labour - Effortless
Our conduct - Worthless
Our relation - Loveless
Our attitude - Careless
Our feelings - Heartless
Our politics - Shameless
Our education - Valueless
Our follies - Countless
Our arguments - Baseless Our boss- Brainless
Our Job - Thankless
Our Salary - Very less

...bright

Future of IT Engineers

I was reading a consulting report from one of the consulting gurus on the said topic. The future of the IT lies in what the CEO's of the big companies think and expect. From the report, it was clear that the CEOs of fortune 100 companies are expecting the following two mantras from IT world.

1. Virtualization
2. IT as services

Virtualization - The concept of decoupling the software [mainly the operating system] from the underlying hardware is called virtualization. By adding more resources to a server, mainly the CPU, storage and memory [aka RAM], more images of operating systems can be brought up on the same machine to run several services. This adds more pressure on the hardware vendors because they have to think about eliminating the SPOF - Single Point Of Failure from the hardware perspective.

IT as services - Big companies do not want to spend more money on maintaining an inhouse IT team to build and maintain a custom application. They wanted to go for a packaged solution [like ERP] or outsource the maintenance and enhancement services to a big vendor.

By the virtue of the above two requirements, we are referring to two set of skills opposite to each other.

For building a packaged solution [be it hardware or ERP], the companies will be expected the creamy layers from the top Technology colleges. If i am a CEO and i have to make decision in this, i will not settle for anyone with an IQ less than 180 [infact, that is what the GOOGLE team is doing right now].

For the IT services, it is all about understanding some badly written code sometime back and to make it work by providing a temporary fix. More bugs will be introduced and more scope for improvement will be created in the due course.

I dont expect a very good skill level is required for this work. The big companies like Accenture, Wipro, Infosys and now TCS had already started recruiting B.Sc and BCA graduates for this "services" work. They will probably not require any more engineers in future [who will comply with the minimum salary restrictions imposed by most of the Grade A colleges].

Now, more than the question about the future of IT, it is question about the future of engineers in IT. Leave alone the fresh graduates, what about the engineers who already spent quite some time in the IT world and who did let go any good chance in their own engineering field.

In the similar lines of the law of energy - "The amount of work / jobs always remain constant. It only gets transformed from one form to the other". The statement is true, but should an axe be used for cutting butter?

...bright

முறமா? சல்லடையா?

சின்ன வயசில அம்மா அரிசி சலிக்கும் போது கைல கெடைச்சதை எல்லாம் தூக்கி சல்லடைல போட்டது ஞாபகத்துக்கு வருது. ஆனா பதிவு அத பத்தினது கிடையாது.

முறதுக்கும் சல்லடைக்கும் ஒரு சின்ன வித்தியாசம் உண்டு.
முறம் நல்லத எல்லாம் தன் கிட்டே வச்சிக்கிட்டு தேவை இல்லாத மத்ததை கீழே தள்ளிடும்.
சல்லடை நல்லதை கீழே தள்ளிட்டு தேவை இல்லாததை தன்னோட வச்சிக்கும்.

நாம முறம் மாதிரி இருக்குறதா இல்ல சல்லடை மாதிரி இருக்குறதாங்க்றது அவுங்கவுங்க விருப்பம்.

ஆனா ஒண்ணு மட்டும் ஞாபகத்தில் இருக்கணும். நல்லத விட கெட்டது ரொம்ப சுலபமா ஒருத்தர மயக்கிடும்.

சமீபத்தில் படித்த செய்தி.
அமெரிக்காவில் இருந்து ஒரு 16 வயது பெண் வீட்டில் சொல்லாமல் வளைகுடா நாடு ஒன்றிற்கு வந்து விட்டார். எதற்கு? சமூக சேவை செய்யவா? இல்ல்வே இல்லை. myspace.com என்று சொல்லப்படுகிற ஒரு வளைப்பதிவில் அறிமுகமான ஒரு நண்பரை பார்ப்பதற்காக இவ்வாறு செய்துள்ளார். இது ஒரு குற்றம் என்பதால் தான் இது செய்தி தாளில் வெளியானது. தவறு செய்தவர் அமெரிக்க பெண் என்றோ அல்லது தவறுக்கான காரணம் internet என்பதாலோ இது தப்பில்லை என்று கூற முடியாது.

தற்போது வெளியாகும் தமிழ் படங்களை பார்க்கும் போது மனதில் ஒரு நெருடல்...சின்ன கலக்கம், லேசான பயம். வன்முறையும் வக்கிரமும் தான் வாழ்க்கை என்பது போல் ஒரு தோற்றம் உருவாக்கப்படுகிறது. அத்தகைய படத்தை பாராட்டியும் சிலர் கூறும் போது வெறுப்பு தான் வருகிறது.

காந்தி படம் பார்த்து யாராவது காந்தி ஆனார்களா? அப்புறம் ஏன் 'தாதா' படம் பார்த்தால் மட்டும் குறை சொல்கிறார்கள் என்பது போன்ற கேள்வி வெறும் விதண்டாவாதம் அன்றி வேறில்லை என்பது என்னுடைய தாழ்மையான கருத்து.

வீட்டிற்கு வரும் நண்பருக்கு காபி கொடுப்பது வழக்கம். விருந்தோம்பல் என்று சொல்லப்படுவது. ஆனால் காபியோடு 'கஞ்சா' கலந்து கொடுப்ப்து நயவஞ்சகம். அதை விடக் கொடுமை நண்பர் 'கஞ்சா'வைத் தான் விரும்புகிறார் என்று எடுத்துக் கொள்வதும், நண்பருக்கு 'கஞ்சா' கலக்கி கொடுப்பது ஒன்றும் தவறில்லை, அது சற்றே வழக்கத்திலிருந்து மாறுபட்டு செயல்படுவது என்றும் நமக்கு நாமே சமாதானம் சொல்லிக்கொள்வதும் கொடியதிலும் பெரிய கொடியது. இதைத் தான் இன்றைய தமிழ் சினிமா செய்கிறது.

ஒரு ராமனைப் பற்றி சொல்லும் போது, ராவணன் கதை வந்தால், மனம் பண்படும். ஆனால், ராவணனை பற்றி மட்டுமே சொல்லி, ராமனும் அங்கு இருந்தான் என்று சொன்னால் மனம் புண்படும்.

அமைதி பூங்காவாக இருக்கும் தமிழ் நாடு, ரத்தக் களரியாக காட்சியளிக்கும் 'கொலை நாடு' போல் சித்தரிக்கும் இந்த திரைப்படங்களால் யாருக்கு தான் நன்மை?

ஓ மனமே..ஓ மனமே..உள்ளிருந்து அழுவது யார்?

...பிரைட்


பி.கு.
பின்வரும் பதிவை படித்த பிறகு எனக்கு தோன்றியதை புலம்பலாக கொட்டி விட்டேன். அவர் கருத்தை அவர் சொல்லியுள்ளார். என் கருத்தை நான் சொல்லியுள்ளேன். அவ்வளவு தான். மற்றபடி யாரையும் புண்படுத்துவது என் நோக்கம் அல்ல.
http://kuzhali.blogspot.com/2006/06/blog-post_14.html

Out of my comfort zone

The first question to answer is "Define Comfort Zone"...
my comfort zone is always my sweet little home, in my own small room, sleeping in my dad's lap. so, the moment i step out of my home, it is "out of my comfort zone". Is it a right way to define my comfort zone? truly, it is not.

i am trying hard to define the boundary of my comfort zone - leave the "comfort" part of it, atleast my zone. whenever i think that i have found my "zone" it is like seeing a distant light in the middle of a dark tunnel. when i feel that it is the light of hope - "comfort zone", it appears to be the light of a fast approaching train. All i do is duck and save myself momentarily ! how long can it go?

i am into the working community for eight years now; everytime i take up a new project, it only gives me the memory of what happened during my good old tech days. i take it up as a new learning experience, new scope for growth, new scope to analyze a 'business' scenario, new scope to come up with a better solutions for a known problem.

but then, the question arises. what is my unique selling property [USP]? whenever i finish my project, i walk out of the place with just my memory trails.

Last few days had been very hectic at work. I was coordinating with a partner vendor to setup some software. There were a lot of miscommunications between what we wanted and what they can do. Everytime it was like a battle. I was defending arguments, in which the credibility of the 60,000+ employees of my company was questioned...Sometimes, it was so embarassing that the customer is always right - Are we doing justice for the amount of money he is spending? he wants his job done with the right kind of person. we are juggling with the existing resources to meet his requirements leading to such an awkward situation - both to the customer and to ourself.

May be i am hard on myself. I am expecting a lot of perfection from myself. I get mixed up between my 'head' and 'heart'. i feel ashamed for not fulfilling the expectations of my managers, my seniors...i am not setting a 'role model' myself.

is this what happens when you step out of your comfort zone? is it the same feeling anyone has to go through if they wanted to face the challenge?

there was a lecture on 'Knowledge - Skills - Attitude'. Right kind of attitude will get you anywhere you want to go. it will help you to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills, true. but, at times, one should also have to have the attitude to say 'NO' for something that is not in his scope.

why would a OS/390 obsessed, keen to grow as a S390 system programmer, had an opportunity to become a solution architect for J2EE project? why did a S390 assembly language aspirant, land in doing function point analysis for a large project in some part of Africa? Are these the 'scope' for further improvement or the 'force' of hindering the growth path? Only time can answer!!!

...bright

All about Winning

An excerpt from Deccan Herald.

Question: All this talk about winning makes me wonder: Is there any place for losers in this world? Only a small percentage of people succeed. What should all the non-winners do, just kill themselves?
-- S Gopal, Bangalore

Answer : What a question - it has to mean that, you see winning in purely economic terms. That's just not how it has to be. We think about winning another way - as setting personal goals and achieving them, and (just as important) enjoying the experience on the way. Winning has nothing - or everything - to do with your job.

Yes, you can win as a corporate executive, but you can win just as meaningfully as a carpenter, math teacher or singer in a wedding band. You can win raising a family, caring for your parents or being a good friend - as long as those are the dreams you picked for yourself. Indeed, the biggest winners in the world are those who answer "Yes" to the question, "Am I living the life I choose?"

One of the biggest winners we know is a person whom, by your economic definition, would probably not qualify at all. James O'Connell graduated from Harvard Medical School. But instead of pursuing a prestigious and lucrative career, he has spent the past 22 years driving a van around Boston practically every night, delivering medical care to the homeless. He lives simply; money doesn't matter to him. And yet O'Connell's life is full of joy, and he is loved by everyone lucky enough to know him, from street people to senators.

Look, winning and losing can't be quantified. They are states of mind, and losing only happens when you give up. Seen that way, then, the world can be filled with winners, and there is room for them all.

Spot the Car

After posting two of the forwarded mails that i received, i thought of uploading a trivia to my blog site.
The contest is very simple. You just have to spot the car in the picture below.

Interestingly, the fact is that:

1. It took less than a second for a woman to spot of the car
2. The man had to be reminded that there is a car in the picture [after how long...it depends]

Here is the puzzle!



...bright

Ek Choti Si Love Story

Lady: Why do you like me..? Why do you love me?

Man: I can't tell the reason.. but I really like you..

Lady: You can't even tell me the reason... how can you say you like me?
How can you say you love me?


Man: I really don't know the reason, but I can prove that I love you.

Lady: Proof? No! I want you to tell me the reason. My friend's boyfriend can tell
her why he loves her but not you!


Man: Ok..ok!!! Ermm... because you are beautiful, because your voice issweet,
because you are caring,because you are loving, because you are thoughtful,
because of your smile, because of your every movement.....


Unfortunately, a few days later, the Lady met with an accident and became a
numb body. The Guy then placed a letter by her side, and here is the content:

"Dearest,


Because of your sweet voice that I love you...Now can you talk? No!
Therefore I cannot love you.

Because of your care and concern that I love you.. Now that you
cannot show them, therefore I cannot love you.

Because of your smile, because of your every movement that I love you... Now
can you smile? Now can you move? No, therefore I cannot love you...


If love needs a reason, like now, there is no reason for me to love you anymore.
Do love need a reason? No! Therefore, I still love you...And love doesn't need a reason...

" The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen,

not touched...but are felt in the heart ."

And.... he said that is the reason I Love You .............

A Small Moral Story

An old man lived alone in Minnesota. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work.
His only son, who would have helped him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation:

Dear Son,

I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year.
I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always loved planting time.
I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over.
I know you would dig the plot for me, if you weren't in prison.
.............................Love, Dad

Shortly, the old man received this telegram: "For Heaven's sake, Dad, don't dig up the garden!! That's where I buried the GUNS!!"

At 4 a.m. the next morning, a dozen FBI agents and
local police officers showed up and dug up the entire garden without finding any guns.

Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son
telling him what happened, and asked him what to do next.

His son's reply was: "Go ahead and plant your potatoes,
Dad.......................... It's the best I could do for you from here."

Moral of the story:
NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE IN THE WORLD, IF YOU HAVE DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING DEEP FROM YOUR HEART, YOU CAN DO IT.
IT IS THE THOUGHT THAT MATTERS NOT WHERE YOU ARE OR WHERE THE PERSON IS.

The concept of forwarding mails

Some time back, i received a mail [forwarded mail] explaining the concept of "forwarding".

1. You like someone but dont know what to say, then you forward a mail.
2. You want stay in touch with someone, then you forward a mail
...da da da...di di di...do do do...
n. You wanted to tell someone that you still remember them, then you forward mail
etc.,

I had two friends who worked with me in Bahrain. Both of them left for a different assignment. So, the math is working out like, for every forwarded mail, i get two identical forwarded mails in response...way to go, isnt it?

...bright

My own LPAR

I had a dream...

When i had my first hands on session with IBM mainframe, i got so much attracted by the concept of MVS and OS/390.

The "kick" in working with a OS/390 machine, in TSO environment is that, you dominate the big machine, you command the big machine and you make the big machine work.
It gives a feeling of being a "Master" - Dominate the big machine to obey your commands.
It will be difficult in the initial stages to follow and understand the JCLs, JES, Jobs, ISPF, CICS etc., But then, you can make the system work in the way you wanted - not the way how it works.

From the first time, i submitted a DFSORT JCL to sort names in ascending order and the job successfully returned a return code 0, i wanted to own my own LPAR.
Today, eight years later, i am typing this mail because i have reached my dream milestone. I am owning not one but three LPARs. It is part of my role and responsibility to monitor and manage the LPARs on behalf of the client, but still, a little smile comes to my mind whenever i think about my dream and the LPARs that are available now.

LPAR - Logical Partition - A virtualization concept from IBM implemented using PR/SM. PR/SM is Processor Resource System Manager pronounced as "PRISM".
Prism splits a single ray of white light into seven rays of VIBGYOR. However, PR/SM virtualizes a single resource to appear as multiple resource from the receiving end.

I know it is getting too much technical...so signing off now.

...bright

The tale of Two Workers

GODS must be crazy. Otherwise, Is there any other best opinion to justify why GOD created the Project Managers?

Let me elaborate the above statement with a simple story.

Once upon a time, there were two workers. Both are equally qualified. They were both working in the same project.

One of the worker, let us say Mr. X, was working on a tool. He did some ground work on his own, explored the tool and developed a small script to automate testing using the tool. I will call Mr. X as a smart worker.

On the other hand, our second worker, call Mr. Y, was working with the same tool. But, he used to do the same work as Mr. Y manually. That means, whatever Mr. X automated will be manually repeated by Mr. Y and it takes lot of time [almost five times the effort put by Mr. A for the same work]. I will call Mr. X as a hard worker [definitely he was not hardly worker].

As the Corporate world demands, the appraisal time arrived. Now, the project manager has to rate one among the two workers as an EXCEPTIONAL while the other as AVERAGE.

Now, any logical thinker will consider Mr. X as exceptional and Mr. Y as average. But, Project Managers always being project managers, rated the other way.

The project manager also justified his categorization that Mr. Y was putting five times extra effort as Mr. X and hence he deserves the best.

My dear fellow team members, please tell me...is there any reason why i should not hate my project manager?

...bright

Fifty and Still Going...

Today is a special day. Not only because it is the birthday of Thiru. Karunanithi – the new CM of Tamilnadu or Maestro Ilayaraja – the king of cine music. It is because today I am publishing my 50th blog.

I have been waiting for quite some time to make this 50th entry a special one. But, I could not think about anything great. I have finished writing the recent happenings in my life [Beyond the Curve] and at present there is nothing much to blog. So, I decided to go with the flow.



What a ride it was…I have blogged almost all the mood swings in my day to day life. What I saw in the world around me , how I felt about them and what I learnt from the people around me were the contributions to most of my blogs.

In the journey, I have acquired the patronage of few regular visitors to my site, who provide their sincere feedbacks and bring moral boost to keep me going. I want to keep this blogging spirit high and march towards the next milestone.


…bright

An Electrical Engineer

I am an electrical engineer. I did my engineering from one of the prestigeous colleges in Tamilnadu / India. Okay, so what? What am i doing now?


I spent four years

1. struggling with maths-I, maths-II, maths-III, engineering maths...
2. learning Kirchoff's current and voltage law...
3. understanding electron devices...
4. studying electrical machines...

Finally to do what, to draw four squares in all possible direction in the name of 'Defining a Strategy'.

Sometimes, when i am sitting alone and think about what i have done, it hurts. I am in a good job and drawing money out of it. But, what kind of job? A job that can be done by a science graduate or a diploma holder. The truth may be that, it is my engineering graduation that fetched me this job. But, the ground fact is that, because i got into this job, i spoiled
1. The better chance of an electrical engineer.
2. The career opportunity for an aspiring science graduate.

• What did Kirchoff, Ohm, Ampere, do to me?
• How is L'Hospital rule, Calculas, trigonometry helping me?
• Where are my electrons, protons, neutrons, transistors, flip flops, micro processors?
• Where are my synchoronous machines, dc machines, transformers?
• What am i doing with MS word or MS Excel?
• What am i doing with this program ? - be it COBOL or java - i did not even write this one

Whose problem is it? I may be branded the "Totally Confused Stupid" software engineer. But, am i a true engineer?. The work had totally spoiled me and made a dumbo that i need a calculator or an excel sheet to confirm that 2 + 2 is equal to 4.

"i was born intelligent; graduated knowledgeable; it is only my work that spoiled me" - is it the same kind of feeling that every engineering graduate in the software maintenance project feel?

...bright

Beyond the Curves

Anyone who had studied mathematics in their higher education, would have come across Probability. As usual stuff, we study the probability of getting a head while tossing a coin. Then we will be introduced to sampling. Getting a diamond king from a pack of cards. It will be extended further to Poisson Distribution and Normal Distribution.

Normal Distribution - I remember it as the bell curve. The normal curve looks something like this.

When i was studying the normal distribution or the "bell curves" - little had i known that this curve is going to play a very important role in my career. Little had i known that it is this curve i should satisfy more than anything - because the "SYSTEM" likes this bell shaped curve and the "SYSTEM" can do anything to maintain its curve and "SYSTEM" never care anything about its people.

In the above figure, let us just assume that each zone is mapped to a number to represent the population in that zone. We get numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Let us also assume that the numbers can be enumerated as follows.

1 - The person is a vegetable
2 - The person exist in the "SYSTEM"
3 - The person can only perform
4 - The person can think and perform
5 - The person is exceptional and the system's lifeline depends on him

Observation 1:
As per the normal distribution, the majority of the population tends to be around the center of the bell shape. Going by the "SYSTEMS" own definition, if the majority of its people are normal or fall under the "PERFORM ONLY" category, how can the "SYSTEM" claim itself to be world class. Going by the equations,
WHOLE PART = SUM OF INDIVIDUAL PARTS ......(1)
INDIVIDUAL PART = AVERAGE .............................(2)
WHOLE PART = SUM OF AVERAGE PARTS.
This implies that the "SYSTEM" can only be "AVERAGE" and not "WORLD-CLASS".

Observation 2:
Going by pareto analysis, "...80% of wealth lies with 20% of people..." Slightly modifying this statement, "...80% of the work is done by only 20% of the people..." Therefore, the "SYSTEM" should only concentrate on identifying those 20% of the people and reward them, rather than distributing everyone evenly and try to fit some curve.

Observation 3:
Based on my personal experience, the "SYSTEM" is very dumb and it is so dumb enough to place ***keys in the manager role!

Eight years of life in the "SYSTEM" means eight years of unique encounters with the "SYSTEM". I am still hoping that the "SYSTEM" will mature and look "beyond the curve" to be a people oriented "SYSTEM".

I love Indian Cricket and i am a true indian. But, if i am asked to select the best team, i will select Cricket Australia - on weekdays and also on saturdays and sundays [read it as thursdays and fridays if you are in the middle east] - because i believe, a STAR TEAM is more consistent than a TEAM of STARs.

...bright

Spiral or Concentric Circle - About a Friend

The above is a typical sign to show that the next few scenes are flashback - in text format, the next few lines are flashbacks.

In the year 1994, i was in G-141 in PSG Tech hostels reading some magazine. One of my friend rushed to my room with a BASIC language book. Some idea had sparked in his mind and he wanted to share it with me. He discussed with me about coding a BASIC program to play the game HANGMAN. That time, i was new to computers. With my biology background in +2 and also my initial stream in engineering being Textile Technology, i did not show any interest with him, but just listened to his idea. It was simple graphics, but a great thinking by my friend.

Few months later, by the grace of reallocation, i moved to Electrical & Electronics Engineering. This time, my friend explained to me about a wonderful language called C, that he just started learning. I just watched him explain with lot of energy and enthusiasm about the power and simplicity of the language.

In the year 1996, we went to the same computer center to equip ourselves. When i was writing batch files and DOS programs to calculate C = A + B, he was writing an intelligent tester program using VB. I always followed his path...but, while he was going in giant leaps, i was just taking baby steps. I wrote my first calculator program in VB while he was testing his Carrom Board game written in VC++.

In the year 1997, i attended one of his class mainly because, there was my 'manpasand ladki' attending that session.

In 1998, I got placed in a mainframe giant company. He was placed in a company that develops products for specific segments. I was learning and debugging JCLs while he was building scripts in VC++. We used to discuss how polymorphism is implemented in C++. We used to exchange mails on the working of virtual and a friend functions OOP.

Later, we were not in touch for some time. Each one of us were busy in our own world. I got into the maintenance world, looking at some piece of code written by someone, even before i was born. Doing a very big enhancement of adding 3 instead of 2 to the final result.

Recently, i got a mail from him. After all the normal enquiries about each other, he announced that he had floated a company. It is a joint venture and he is like the Chief Technical / Information Officer. Wow, I was taken by surprise. I did not even dream anything close to that. I was proud of this guy.

The way the neurons fire and exchange information is very strange. I started with some strand of neurons and they fired to many adjacent neurons. I have converted the neuron responses into text and typed here. I need to go through it once again to see if it had made any sense.

before signing out, about the manpasand ladki - come on, everyone of us have a little cheran within ourselves waiting for his autograph!

...bright