Vacation to India

16th September 2006 onwards...
I am very much excited to go on a vacation to "Singara Chennai" after one year. Going on vacation is always a thrilling experience.



Even though I am 99.99999% happy about the vacation, there is still a small part of my sub-consciousness mind smiling devilish and reminding me that i should come back here after ten days...ofcourse, that is the universal truth isn't it? - nothing lasts forever!

regards...bright

In Remembrance of 9/11

New Office - Photo blog

Photo 1:
The individual packings arrive at the new building.

Photo 2:
The associates unpack and configure their workstations on their own.

Photo 3:
My desk - after setting up the desktop.

Photo 4:
Me and my own workspace - with the white board.

Photo 5:
The Seef business district view from our new office.

Photo 6:
Another view of Seef...

Photo 7:
My attempt to show creativity - Guess what it is!

Photo 8:
In the pick-up van...after a busy day at work :)

Comments, please...bright

All about GODS

I wanted to write about this for a long time. Today, i got a chance to sit down and type it out.

I was working in a client location in New Jersey in USA. We were practicing onsite - offshore model. One of my role was to coordinate the release management with offshore team. Every monday i used to attend a status review meeting with the client manager. We used to discuss the status of the action items from the previous week meeting and carry forward the action items for the current week.

One week, during the normal status meeting, i submitted the status report for only four days and explained that the offshore had one day holiday due to krishna jayanthi. She asked me about it. I explained that Krishna is a Hindu God and the celebration was on his birthday.

Few weeks later, again i gave a status report for four days accounting a holiday for vinayakar chathurthi. I told that Pillaiyar or vinayakar is one of the hindu gods. She was surprised by the statement "ONE OF" the gods. She asked about the hindu gods. I told about
Brahma - The creator
Vishnu - The saviour
Shiva - The destroyer
and the other gods and how they are related.

She commented telling that, you guys must be very lucky. In our case, there is only one god who has to take care of everything for everyone...but, in your case, there is a special god for everything and also there are so many gods to share the prayer requests. I stated it as a problem that if there is only one god, he will definitely hear and attend to our requests. On a contrary, since there are so many hindu gods, each one of them will think that the other will take care of the request and finally the requests go unanswered.

Isn't it a good cited example about perception?

regards...bright

ARAN - The Fence

I casually started watching the movie ARAN in VCD. But as the movie progressed, i was deeply absorbed into the movie and stopped watching. For one good reason, i should watch this movie in theatre...i have to wait for quite some time as the movie is not released in this part of geography. However, i hope it must be worth to have this wait.

A soldier stands in the bitter cold defending the walls of our own country, in order to provide his fellow country men a very comfortable life without any worry about the intruders...or even without any awareness of the person who is protecting them.

We do small things in life to get noticed by our superiors and an appreciation from the client. The men in uniform leave their life in someone's hands to get covered, and stand protecting the other's life in their hand - in return, what do they get?

It is a curse or a gift to our society, no one is valued by their self or their contribution but, only based on their popularity and the importance shown by the media.

regards...bright

A Programmer's poem

Source : A Forwarded Mail.

Regards...bright

Mobile Phone and A Racing Car

Will you dare to put your mobile phone in a racing track to be run over by a racing car? Sounds funny, isnt it? just go ahead to read this blog.

Today [Sep 8, 2006] is a weekend in this geography. However, as a practice we went to office for work. We had a lazy breakfast and a lengthy tea break. After a while, we decided to call it a day and go to the food court in the nearby shopping mall for lunch. After a junky lunch in one of the western chain, we started strolling around the mall doing window shopping.

I came across many interesting things...definitely interesting, but atleast not going to change "my" life style.

For example, there is a branded pen. The starting price is BD 130 [that is 120 times of 130 in Indian Rupees]. What difference is it going to make if i sign with this pen or using an ordinary pen that we get in the street corner shops of singara chennai - i dont know.

Then there were a range of mobile phone varying from BD 230 - BD 399. They do serve a little more purpose than just making and receiving phone calls. I remembered one of my client side manager. He carries a very old model, probably the very first mobile phone that motorola introduced in the market. When I ask him if it was his sentiment to keep the same mobile, he used to say that it is not his sentiment, but, he did not find anything more that a mobile phone can serve. He can still make and receive calls, store numbers and send SMS. What more is required for a mobile phone? I find it to be a valid argument.

However, here comes the big surprise. I came across a showroom which looked much secured than a diamond showroom. Out of curiosity, just peeped into the showroom through the glass door. There were a few, very few mobile phones on display. Not a usual stuff for a normal mobile showroom. When i just got a little closer, surprised to see ... the price of one mobile phone is BD 8120 [yes, that is Eight Thousand One Hundred and Twenty Bahrain Dinars]. OH MY GOD...that is much much higher than what i received as salary during my entire 13 months stay in Bahrain. The most wonderful thing is that the mobile phone was displayed with a caption "How many handhelds can withstand a racing car? This phone withstood a racing car running over this phone ..." after that everything was like "blah blah blah" for me.

When i came out of shop, i was still in the grip of little shock and lot of surprises. One thing i am still not clear. Let us say one will do hundred things with a cell mobile...but which whacko will put his mobile under the tyre of a running race car and what purpose does it solve whether the phone stayed put or not after this test?

regards...bright

Chikungunya fever - Fact Sheet

In the recent news, one thing dominates...the chikungunya break out in most of the states in India. My parents were also infected by this chikungunya fever. So, when i was searching the net for details about this strange name, found the following fact sheet. Thought it will be a worthy information to post in my blog.

Source: The internet

What is chikungunya fever?
Chikungunya fever is a viral disease transmitted to humans by the bite of infected mosquitoes. Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a member of the genus Alphavirus, in the family Togaviridae. CHIKV was first isolated from the blood of a febrile patient in Tanzania in 1953, and has since been identified repeatedly in west, central and southern Africa and many areas of Asia, and has been cited as the cause of numerous human epidemics in those areas since that time. The virus circulates throughout much of Africa, with transmission thought to occur mainly between mosquitoes and monkeys.

What type of illness does chikungunya virus cause?
CHIKV infection can cause a debilitating illness, most often characterized by fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, rash, and joint pain. The term ‘chikungunya’ is Swahili for ‘that which bends up.’

The incubation period (time from infection to illness) can be 2-12 days, but is usually 3-7 days. “Silent” CHIKV infections (infections without illness) do occur; but how commonly this happens is not yet known.

Acute chikungunya fever typically lasts a few days to a couple of weeks, but as with dengue, West Nile fever, o'nyong-nyong fever and other arboviral fevers, some patients have prolonged fatigue lasting several weeks. Additionally, some patients have reported
incapacitating joint pain, or arthritis which may last for weeks or months. The prolonged joint pain associated with CHIKV is not typical of dengue. Co-circulation of dengue fever in many areas may mean that chikungunya fever cases are sometimes clinically misdiagnosed as dengue infections, therefore the incidence of chikungunya fever could be much higher than what has been previously reported.

No deaths, neuroinvasive cases, or hemorrhagic cases related to CHIKV infection have been conclusively documented in the scientific literature.

CHIKV infection (whether clinical or silent) is thought to confer life-long immunity.

How do humans become infected with chikungunya virus?
CHIKV is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on a person infected with CHIKV. Monkeys, and possibly other wild animals, may also serve as reservoirs of the virus. Infected mosquitoes can then spread the virus to other humans when they bite.

Aedes aegypti (the yellow fever mosquito), a household container breeder and aggressive daytime biter which is attracted to humans, is the primary vector of CHIKV to humans. Aedes albopictus (the Asian tiger mosquito)may also play a role in human transmission is Asia, and various forest-dwelling mosquito species in Africa have been found to be infected with the virus.

Where does chikungunya virus occur?
The geographic range of the virus is Africa and Asia. For information on current outbreaks, consult CDC’s Travelers’ Health website (www.cdc.gov/travel). Given the current large CHIKV epidemics and the world wide distribution of Aedes aegypti, there is a risk of importation of CHIKV into new areas by infected travelers.

How is chikungunya virus infection treated?
No vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for chikungunya fever is available. Treatment is symptomatic--rest, fluids, and ibuprofen, naproxen, acetaminophen, or paracetamol may relieve symptoms of fever and aching. Aspirin should be avoided

Infected persons should be protected from further mosquito exposure (staying indoors and/or under a mosquito net during the first few days of illness) so that they can't contribute to the transmission cycle.

What can people do to prevent becoming infected with chikungunya virus?
The best way to avoid CHIKV infection is to prevent mosquito bites. There is no vaccine or preventive drug. Prevention tips are similar to those for dengue or West Nile virus:

* Use insect repellent containing an DEET or another EPA-registered active ingredient on exposed skin. Always follow the directions on the package.
* Wear long sleeves and pants (ideally treat clothes with permethrin or another repellent).
* Have secure screens on windows and doors to keep mosquitoes out.
* Get rid of mosquito breeding sites by emptying standing water from flower pots, buckets and barrels. Change the water in pet dishes and replace the water in bird baths weekly. Drill holes in tire swings so water drains out. Keep children's wading pools empty and on their sides when they aren't being used.
* Additionally, a person with chikungunya fever or dengue should limit their exposure to mosquito bites in order to avoid further spreading the infection. The person should stay indoors or under a mosquito net.

regards...bright

Become the best you can be

Little busy at work...so, just a photo message.

Source: Pravs World



...bright

What had education done to us?

"I was born intelligent...education made me dumb" - read it in some T-Shirt.

ஒரு சின்ன கதை.
மாடு கட்டி செக்கிழுக்கும் எண்ணெய் கடை க்குச் சென்ற ஒருவர், அங்கிருந்த கடைகாரரிடம், "என்னங்க மாட்டுக்கு பக்கத்திலிருந்து அது ஒழுங்கா செக்கிழுக்குதான்னு கவனிக்காம வெளிய உக்காந்திருக்கீங்க?" அப்படீன்னு கேட்டார். அதுக்கு கடைகாரர், "இல்ல, அதெல்லாம் மாடு ஒழுங்கா தான் வேல செய்யுது" அப்படீன்னார். "அது எப்படி அவ்வளவு உறுதியா சொல்லுறீங்க". "மாட்டு கழுத்துல மணி தொங்குது. அது சுத்தி சுத்தி வரும் போது அந்த மணி சத்தம் கேக்கும். மாடு நின்னுடிச்சீன்னா, மணி சத்தம் கேக்காது. நான் உள்ள போய் மாட்டை கவனித்துக் கொள்வேன்". இந்த பதிலால் திருப்தி அடையாத வந்தவர் "நீங்க சொல்றது சரி. ஆனா மாடு நின்ன எடத்துலேயே நின்னுகிட்டு தலய மட்டும் ஆட்டினா எப்படி கண்டுபிடிப்பீங்க" அப்படீன்னு கேட்டு ஒரு மடக்கு மடக்கினார். ஏற்கனவே இந்த கேள்விகளால் கடுப்பாகி இருந்த கடைகாரர் சொன்னார் "அந்த மாதிரி செய்ய அது ஒண்ணும் படித்த மாடு இல்ல...படிக்காத மாடு தான், அதனால நீங்க ஒண்ணும் கவல பட வேண்டாம்" அப்பிடீன்னு சொல்லிட்டு அந்த இடத்த விட்டு எழுந்து போயிட்டாராம்.

I always have this question in mind. The construction workers who build / construct the skyscrapers or long bridges are not engineers or highly qualified person. But, the end product is a highly reliable one.

When it comes to software products, right from the product concept to the final implementation, the entire software development life cycle was taken care by the top engineers from the reputed institutions. However, the end product is not completely stable.

Where do we attribute this to?
A saying goes like this..."Too many cooks will spoil the broth".
Similarly, is it like "Too many minds with thousands of sparking ideas spoil the entire software product?"

Recently i was talking to one of the web developers. He had customised the browser through his code that the application looked more like a thick client application written in VB / C++ application. Out of curiosity i asked him how and why he did like this? The response was that, there are some issues when the user clicks the back button in the browser window. So, in order to prevent the user from using the back or forward button, he had completely removed the browser controls through his application.

Well, while it appears to be an innovative idea, how many of us will get into the bus if the conductor says that, "when the driver applies brake the passengers are falling front. Therefore to avoid that incovenience, we have removed the brake in this bus"

When we construct a house, or buy a motor vehicle, we query thousand times about its reliability, the guarantee / warranty etc., but, when we build an application, we dont care about anything...after all, no one dies in the end, isnt it?

CEOs of ten top software development companies were boarded into a chartered flight. Each one of them were told a message in person. On hearing that, nine CEOs immediately left the plane. The reporters asked the confident CEO "we told each one of the CEO that the the avionics software of this flight is built by their own company. they immediately deboarded the plane. You are the only CEO who is confident about your product and you build the most reliable software". In response, the CEO replied "The other CEOs were afraid because their software might fail during flight. But, if it is our software, the flight will not even take off".
This is just meant for a joke. But, isnt it worth to spend some thought on this?

yet another software engineer...bright