The above title is an anonymous quote (I have no clue who said this :) ) made in the software industry. The sentence just stirred a few thoughts in my mind and the result is this blog post. I really don't know the veracity of this statement, but digging into the details, I am inclined to believe, it is not far away from the truth.
I have been part of various design level meetings myself. The setup is usually a wooden paneled 6x8 room (but sometimes bigger too) with a table surrounded with ergonomic chairs and the centre of the table holding the proud invention of Graham Bell-the multi conference VoIP enabled telephone, dare I say, far advanced than what Bell conceived? There are all kinds of focus lights to throw the spot on those trying to steal an afternoon fiesta. And finally, the PRD's and FSD's lying all over the table, the fuel material that provides the needed succor to formulate the best possible design.
Now, if you are thinking this is THE place for the best solutions to take form, then I am afraid I will not be able to jibe in with this assumption. Usually, the discussion starts off in the right direction, seem to be going fine, when suddenly some random thoughts completely steer the talks from its course and before we realize, the discussion will head in all tangential directions. We go back and forth trying to stay on track, but things do tend to go awry. By the time, we think we are seeing some light, our allotted time gets over and some other team knocks on the door, so that they can find their comfort zone in the room. Slightly vexed, we move out of the room and to release the tension, grab a cuppa coffee and slouch into the couches. A sip of coffee rejuvenates our brain cells and we try and jabber for a while. Suddenly, some one shouts, "Hey, I've got an idea! "Why don't we try and do it this way"? And then the other guy says, "Yeah, this sounds good, maybe we can slightly modify this to make it scalable". And before the heat goes down, the third one says, "Awesome!, with this approach, I can fit in my module without much of an hassle". Things suddenly seem to take shape and a rapid discussion shows a limn of the design. With half cup of the coffee still remaining, we run to our cubes to jot down the freshly brewed idea, lest the brainwave gets washed away. What ensues after this, is purely refining the idea further till it looks like a real good design. Now, this
can continue to happen in the couch or get back to the meeting rooms.
Now, I am not saying that all the designs always happens this way. I have myself sat in meeting rooms and attended really long teleconferences and formulated design level solutions. At the same time, informal discussions in some one's cube, corridor or the cafeteria have proved to be equally conducive surroundings for taking design level decisions. It is hard to conclude which has the whip hand, but off late, the software environment itself being quite informal, such a surrounding helps us think better rather than confine ourselves into the four walls of a meeting room and try to
incubate on the requirements.
"There are two ways of constructing a software design; one way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult." - C. A. R. Hoare
I tried hard to create a relevance point to include this quote, but did not have much luck this time around. So just adding it for the heck of it, coz I found this quote kewl. Now, this is what is probably another incident of going astray from the centre point of this post;)
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
A professional's milestones
I recently heard from one of the managers at my company about the various stages of a computer engineer and how it can affect one's career growth. Coming to think of it little more, I realize that the stages are indeed quite pertinent in shaping our professional career. Though I am going to look at this from a software engineer's eye (as I am one myself), it sure does apply to any professional field if viewed in the right perspective. So let me go ahead and elucidate them.
How technically strong am I?
After my graduation, I entered the software world by making my first job. As I made my first development plan, I sure wasn't thinking that my short term goal and long term goal would be towards becoming a manager. The question I asked myself at that point was, "How technically strong am I?". I was only thinking of various ways of honing my technical skills, bury myself in writing thousands of lines of code and be contended with solving simple to complex problems and providing efficient solutions. An error free compilation or a bug free code was all that satiated me. I wasn't bothered if my manager looked at my code and appreciated me on it. I had a job to do, and I was just getting it done. I was in my own world. My code, books and hundreds of pages of tutorial were my technical comrades.
How many people do I know?
As a couple of years passed, I slowly realized the need to come out of my shell. Yes, I had written reams and reams of code, fixed whole bunch of bugs and taken care of many nitty, gritty technical issues. But, I probably failed to realize that,there were a lot of people who could have written better code than me, provide more effective and efficient solutions, helped me fix my bugs in a better fashion. The question I asked myself at that point was, "How many people do I know? I realized, it was important for me, to know more "egg heads" within my organization. Limiting acquaintance to my techlead, manager, architect or director was surely not sufficient. There was a clear need to know people outside my team, outside my department and maybe outside my organization too. Knowing people from various areas can be very beneficial at the need of the hour. If I had not bridged the "stranger gap" with a lot of people, many Easter eggs would have remained in the oblivion. My eagerness to fix a small hardware issue with my machine paid off, because I knew Mr.X, a hardware expert. We ran into each other sometime back in an office party. My pet project had a good design review because I contacted Mr. Y who has some prior experience working on a similar project. This only emphasizes the fact that it does become important to know many people in the immediate surroundings if one has to grow further in his/her career.
How many people know me?
Finally, if I am going to be in the same organization for more than 5 years, then it becomes absolutely important for me to have a good answer for the question, "How many people know me?" I was technically sound, have done impressive work, knew a lot of people over the years through various
meetings, interactions and have earned good remarks from a handful of superiors. This is when it becomes important to do some self evaluation and find out how many people in the organization actually know me. Have my efforts helped me gain enough visibility within the organization? Yes, visibility is extremely important if you have to survive and survive successfully in an organization. If I were to go up in the corporate ladder, then lot of higher ups should know me. They need to be aware of my work, my potential, and if I will be an asset to the organization in the longer run. In my opinion, winning the confidence of folks in this stage is probably the toughest. A lot of stymies to cross, lot of tough but smart decisions to be taken and
more than anything, a plastic smile towards everyone is of paramount importance!
I don't mean to say that life after this is simply a walk in the park, but at this stage one would have laid the foundation strong enough to take the career higher and higher. New things remain to be learnt, some mistakes remain to be unlearnt and that is the walk of life everyone needs to understand.
Things don't end here. There are lot more milestones to cross, but I strongly feel that once the above three stages are the most important ones.
How technically strong am I?
After my graduation, I entered the software world by making my first job. As I made my first development plan, I sure wasn't thinking that my short term goal and long term goal would be towards becoming a manager. The question I asked myself at that point was, "How technically strong am I?". I was only thinking of various ways of honing my technical skills, bury myself in writing thousands of lines of code and be contended with solving simple to complex problems and providing efficient solutions. An error free compilation or a bug free code was all that satiated me. I wasn't bothered if my manager looked at my code and appreciated me on it. I had a job to do, and I was just getting it done. I was in my own world. My code, books and hundreds of pages of tutorial were my technical comrades.
How many people do I know?
As a couple of years passed, I slowly realized the need to come out of my shell. Yes, I had written reams and reams of code, fixed whole bunch of bugs and taken care of many nitty, gritty technical issues. But, I probably failed to realize that,there were a lot of people who could have written better code than me, provide more effective and efficient solutions, helped me fix my bugs in a better fashion. The question I asked myself at that point was, "How many people do I know? I realized, it was important for me, to know more "egg heads" within my organization. Limiting acquaintance to my techlead, manager, architect or director was surely not sufficient. There was a clear need to know people outside my team, outside my department and maybe outside my organization too. Knowing people from various areas can be very beneficial at the need of the hour. If I had not bridged the "stranger gap" with a lot of people, many Easter eggs would have remained in the oblivion. My eagerness to fix a small hardware issue with my machine paid off, because I knew Mr.X, a hardware expert. We ran into each other sometime back in an office party. My pet project had a good design review because I contacted Mr. Y who has some prior experience working on a similar project. This only emphasizes the fact that it does become important to know many people in the immediate surroundings if one has to grow further in his/her career.
How many people know me?
Finally, if I am going to be in the same organization for more than 5 years, then it becomes absolutely important for me to have a good answer for the question, "How many people know me?" I was technically sound, have done impressive work, knew a lot of people over the years through various
meetings, interactions and have earned good remarks from a handful of superiors. This is when it becomes important to do some self evaluation and find out how many people in the organization actually know me. Have my efforts helped me gain enough visibility within the organization? Yes, visibility is extremely important if you have to survive and survive successfully in an organization. If I were to go up in the corporate ladder, then lot of higher ups should know me. They need to be aware of my work, my potential, and if I will be an asset to the organization in the longer run. In my opinion, winning the confidence of folks in this stage is probably the toughest. A lot of stymies to cross, lot of tough but smart decisions to be taken and
more than anything, a plastic smile towards everyone is of paramount importance!
I don't mean to say that life after this is simply a walk in the park, but at this stage one would have laid the foundation strong enough to take the career higher and higher. New things remain to be learnt, some mistakes remain to be unlearnt and that is the walk of life everyone needs to understand.
Things don't end here. There are lot more milestones to cross, but I strongly feel that once the above three stages are the most important ones.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Grammer Humor
While googling around yesterday, I stumbled upon this interesting site which has lot of funny statements on incorrect usage of of grammar. I have cut n paste a few ones here.
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Don't use no double negatives. Don't never use no triple negatives.
Don't obfuscate your theses with extraneous verbiage.
Read the remaining from this site http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~phensel/Teaching/grammar.html
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Don't use no double negatives. Don't never use no triple negatives.
Don't obfuscate your theses with extraneous verbiage.
Read the remaining from this site http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~phensel/Teaching/grammar.html
Monday, January 17, 2005
India Mapped
One of my friends sent this link to me some time back which surprised me quite a bit. I have seen Yahoo Maps and Map Quest doing an awesome job when it comes to having digital maps, but this site, is second to none when it comes to digitizing maps. The best part being that this is a site exclusively dedicated for the Indian sub continent. I know, Yahoo tried putting Bangalore on its maps, but I don't think they were very successful (correct me if I am wrong). I was able to successfully locate my office and apartment in Bangalore and also my home in Coimbatore (though I had to admit it did not have the exact information). But the bottom line is, this is cool. It is great to see this site and the information displayed with a difference. Enough of my marketing now! Get on to it and see the features for yourself. It is called "Map My India"!
Thursday, January 13, 2005
FUD Factor
FUD stands for Fear, Uncertainity, Doubt. FUD is achieved by attempting to instill a sense of fear, uncertainty or doubt in the minds of consumers regarding a competitor's product. The word or the acronym gained official status, thanks to IBM who's claim to fame was to play a key role in coining this word (Read more to find out how - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FUD).
Another interesting incident happened in the internet world, when HP's VP tried to create FUD about the newly launched Solaris 10 from Sun. The interesting part is not the FUD from the VP, but a fitting response from a passionate developer from the open source community. I innocently unleash the power of blog by providing the link to the reply. Read on... http://www.cuddletech.com/sun/fink.shtml.
Elaborate information about FUD, its elements and how to recognize and stay away from it, is very well portrayed in this article - http://www.attrition.org/~jericho/works/security/fud.html.
Finally, I got to know about FUD when my manager recently mentioned it during a meeting. Interesting information and a cool acronym.
Another interesting incident happened in the internet world, when HP's VP tried to create FUD about the newly launched Solaris 10 from Sun. The interesting part is not the FUD from the VP, but a fitting response from a passionate developer from the open source community. I innocently unleash the power of blog by providing the link to the reply. Read on... http://www.cuddletech.com/sun/fink.shtml.
Elaborate information about FUD, its elements and how to recognize and stay away from it, is very well portrayed in this article - http://www.attrition.org/~jericho/works/security/fud.html.
Finally, I got to know about FUD when my manager recently mentioned it during a meeting. Interesting information and a cool acronym.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Kaadal (Love)
Watched this movie called Kaadal-the latest Tamil movie, nth in the list of launching the cupid arrow. The movie is like any other typical failure love stories, but there are bunch of points that has made quite a difference and in my opinion will also make a huge impact in the most covetous "Box Office". I will elucidate them here.
1) Except for Bharat (the boy from Boyz and 4 the People - u will know this if you have listened to this "Lajjavathiye" song), all other characters are totally fresh and probably the first time ever facing the camera.
2) The movie was based out of Madurai and shot in the same place. No song sequences leapt to Tahiti islands or the Honululu. It has no fights and no jazzy settings.
3) I heard that the movie was shot in natural lights as much as possible, the director not using much of artificial lights.
4) One of the important points being, that the movie is an inspiration from a real life incident.
5) And last but not the least, the screen play and the direction was really outstanding.
Over all, the directory vividly portrays the negative aspects of letting one's infatuation grow into love. The initial flame of joy in the tunnel of love is extinguished by family and societal circumstances that leaves staggering wounds in the minds of the lovers. Most of them fail to see the light at the end of the tunnel and the veil of such failures leave them disoriented.
To love is not a sin and to be loved is not a curse, but the essence of true love lies is realizing the big dream of oneness by the two. It is upto the involved folks to overcome all stymies and taste the sweetness of love. If they fail, life can take nasty turns ruining people's life -sth well sculpted out in this movie. Watch it!
1) Except for Bharat (the boy from Boyz and 4 the People - u will know this if you have listened to this "Lajjavathiye" song), all other characters are totally fresh and probably the first time ever facing the camera.
2) The movie was based out of Madurai and shot in the same place. No song sequences leapt to Tahiti islands or the Honululu. It has no fights and no jazzy settings.
3) I heard that the movie was shot in natural lights as much as possible, the director not using much of artificial lights.
4) One of the important points being, that the movie is an inspiration from a real life incident.
5) And last but not the least, the screen play and the direction was really outstanding.
Over all, the directory vividly portrays the negative aspects of letting one's infatuation grow into love. The initial flame of joy in the tunnel of love is extinguished by family and societal circumstances that leaves staggering wounds in the minds of the lovers. Most of them fail to see the light at the end of the tunnel and the veil of such failures leave them disoriented.
To love is not a sin and to be loved is not a curse, but the essence of true love lies is realizing the big dream of oneness by the two. It is upto the involved folks to overcome all stymies and taste the sweetness of love. If they fail, life can take nasty turns ruining people's life -sth well sculpted out in this movie. Watch it!
Monday, January 10, 2005
Weekend call to action
It was after a long time, I was staying in Bangy for the weekend. Did not have any specific plans but was planning to play it by the ear.
TGIF:
If one thing all S/W engineers want to shout in unison, then it is "Thank God, it's a Friday"! I love Friday evenings and get as enthused about it as I was during my heydays. Came home around 8 pm. Gansal and myself were the only guys around. We did not feel like cooking nor going out. So settled down for our all time favourite - Pizzas! Garlic bread with EXXXTRA cheese and a veggie personal pan did the magic for the evening. We stayed late watching T.V, munching our pizzas and talking worldly matters (no we still do not have plastic teeth!).
Saturday Post:
Went to office on Saturday and spent the whole day out there. Was reading some documents coding and listening to a whole bunch of my favorite songs. Had lunch
at a new restaurant called Thaali that is quite close to my apartment. Was back to office after lunch and did more of what I was doing in the morning. Around 6pm, I stacked up my work and got on to some surfing and orkuting (Is this an official word by now?). I called it a day at 8pm and went home.
Had some good and sumptuous dinner @ home, thanks to my married friends around! :). My immediate consequence of having a good dinner was to crash into the bed and that is exactly what I did. Saturday was drawing to a close over my sleep.
Sunday Times:
Gansal and myself decided to check the status of our apartments we purchased a year and a half ago. It was almost 5 months since we had been there and so wanted to take a sneak preview. Commuting the 12.5 kms to Brigade Gardenia is almost a road trip in Bangalore and hence we decided to complete our visit right in the morning. Anjani tagged along with us and we visited the placed. Quite surprised to see the progress these guys had made. Though we were officially warned about entering the construction
area, we sneaked in to check out our apartments in the 3rd floor. It was a good feeling to see the houses morph into a nice home and our minds were suddenly racing about what needs to be done once the houses are handed over to us. Do we move in? Do we stay in the existing apartment and rent this one out? Did Gansal mention about getting married? Boy, sounded quite scary and we quickly realized that there is no point brainstorming about it right now. We will postpone such decisions to the 11th hour and just keep galloping further. Came back to our apartment by lunch time. Gansal and myself went to Nandini for lunch and after that he took off to office, while I hit home. Spent the afternoon at home watching T.V and playing Age of Empires. In the evening, we did a mini shopping, buying a pair of sandals for Gansal and buying two trousers for my brother. Had dinner and headed straight home.
Sunday was soon over and so was the weekend. I had to prepare a fresh call to action for the week. Was already feeling the Monday morning blues (sigh!)
TGIF:
If one thing all S/W engineers want to shout in unison, then it is "Thank God, it's a Friday"! I love Friday evenings and get as enthused about it as I was during my heydays. Came home around 8 pm. Gansal and myself were the only guys around. We did not feel like cooking nor going out. So settled down for our all time favourite - Pizzas! Garlic bread with EXXXTRA cheese and a veggie personal pan did the magic for the evening. We stayed late watching T.V, munching our pizzas and talking worldly matters (no we still do not have plastic teeth!).
Saturday Post:
Went to office on Saturday and spent the whole day out there. Was reading some documents coding and listening to a whole bunch of my favorite songs. Had lunch
at a new restaurant called Thaali that is quite close to my apartment. Was back to office after lunch and did more of what I was doing in the morning. Around 6pm, I stacked up my work and got on to some surfing and orkuting (Is this an official word by now?). I called it a day at 8pm and went home.
Had some good and sumptuous dinner @ home, thanks to my married friends around! :). My immediate consequence of having a good dinner was to crash into the bed and that is exactly what I did. Saturday was drawing to a close over my sleep.
Sunday Times:
Gansal and myself decided to check the status of our apartments we purchased a year and a half ago. It was almost 5 months since we had been there and so wanted to take a sneak preview. Commuting the 12.5 kms to Brigade Gardenia is almost a road trip in Bangalore and hence we decided to complete our visit right in the morning. Anjani tagged along with us and we visited the placed. Quite surprised to see the progress these guys had made. Though we were officially warned about entering the construction
area, we sneaked in to check out our apartments in the 3rd floor. It was a good feeling to see the houses morph into a nice home and our minds were suddenly racing about what needs to be done once the houses are handed over to us. Do we move in? Do we stay in the existing apartment and rent this one out? Did Gansal mention about getting married? Boy, sounded quite scary and we quickly realized that there is no point brainstorming about it right now. We will postpone such decisions to the 11th hour and just keep galloping further. Came back to our apartment by lunch time. Gansal and myself went to Nandini for lunch and after that he took off to office, while I hit home. Spent the afternoon at home watching T.V and playing Age of Empires. In the evening, we did a mini shopping, buying a pair of sandals for Gansal and buying two trousers for my brother. Had dinner and headed straight home.
Sunday was soon over and so was the weekend. I had to prepare a fresh call to action for the week. Was already feeling the Monday morning blues (sigh!)
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Coimbatore gaining visibility
In the last couple of days, my friends have been sending me links about Coimbatore and how it is becoming more of a popular and hot spot. Hailing from Coimbatore it makes me real proud to see the city take the limelight and also turn many a curious eye to this otherwise taciturn city. Here is what New York Times and other websites have to say about my place.
The IT industry will hopefully start having footprints here and that is when I will make a jump back to Cbe and say "Now it feels like home!:)". After all, who does not want to be in the eye of the storm.
My friends, Sai and Xavier too have some good things to say about Cbe.
The IT industry will hopefully start having footprints here and that is when I will make a jump back to Cbe and say "Now it feels like home!:)". After all, who does not want to be in the eye of the storm.
My friends, Sai and Xavier too have some good things to say about Cbe.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Ice Breaker
Public speaking is fun for people who really love it and for me it is becoming a passion. The obvious consequence was to channel this passion in the right direction and that is what I did, by joining the much-awaited Toast Master's club @ Sun. Yesterday, I gave my first speech called the "Ice Breaker" speech. I had to talk about myself for 5 minutes. I had prepared for it a day earlier and gave my speech decently well and of course passed the first level too! I have nine more speeches to complete before I earn my CTM (Competent Toast Master), but I know that is a long way to go.
Monday, January 03, 2005
And the word of the year 2004 is...
Before I mention the word, it makes sense to write a few lines about it. The activity caught on like wild fire and spread across engulfing everyone-from a school kid all the way upto CEO's. People love to write, like to read and and crave for
viewers and comments. There are people who stick to writing only technical stuff, while other's like to write about anything under the face of the sun. CEO's love bitching about other companies and avow to themselves and the larger community that their organization is like an unstoppable rebel force heading straight towards the pinnacle of success and glory. Photographers wanted their share too and I've come across some of the best photos in the recent months. This is what is called an e-revolution. Mobile technology is already making waves across and it caught upon the word to to start the m-revolution, if I may say that. After all, the attempt
here is sincere and it only proves to bring the world into a close and well-knit community. The effect of the activity has gone to such extremes that there are professionals available to help you in the efforts if you want the publicity but
don't have the time and patience to sit down and punch in your thoughts, surely makes one agape in wonder!
Having said all this, it is time to introduce the word. For those who have already got it, congratulations, you are part of the revolution. And for the others, the word is "Blog". Yes, this is the official word of the year 2004. I see so many people caught on to blogging. Each blog site seems to outdo the other in terms of creative presentation and excellent style of writing. So, if you are not into blogging yet, it is time to get into. It is fun to blog, atleast to me.
viewers and comments. There are people who stick to writing only technical stuff, while other's like to write about anything under the face of the sun. CEO's love bitching about other companies and avow to themselves and the larger community that their organization is like an unstoppable rebel force heading straight towards the pinnacle of success and glory. Photographers wanted their share too and I've come across some of the best photos in the recent months. This is what is called an e-revolution. Mobile technology is already making waves across and it caught upon the word to to start the m-revolution, if I may say that. After all, the attempt
here is sincere and it only proves to bring the world into a close and well-knit community. The effect of the activity has gone to such extremes that there are professionals available to help you in the efforts if you want the publicity but
don't have the time and patience to sit down and punch in your thoughts, surely makes one agape in wonder!
Having said all this, it is time to introduce the word. For those who have already got it, congratulations, you are part of the revolution. And for the others, the word is "Blog". Yes, this is the official word of the year 2004. I see so many people caught on to blogging. Each blog site seems to outdo the other in terms of creative presentation and excellent style of writing. So, if you are not into blogging yet, it is time to get into. It is fun to blog, atleast to me.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
The New Year woke up as I slept through
I did not want to loose my mobile phone on a New Year's day and a host of my other possessions over the year. I was convinced and determined about that. No amount of tempation was going to see me yield. My destination was home and that is where I will be as the New Year dawns. I told this to myself a week before the New Year. Everything was planned. Tickets booked for the 30th night. There was no stopping.
I was home on 31st morning. Did some shopping over the day and played Dungeon Siege for the remaining part. At 9 pm, got into the cozy bed in the living room (with the TV in the front) and started watching 007 movie "Die Another Day". I was half asleep by 10.30 pm and before I could realize, I was sleeping to glory. The clock had stuck 12 and 2005 woke up while I was in deep slumber. Woke up at 7 am, fresh in mind and body. Ate all the good food my mom prepared, watched TV and had occasional chit-chat sessions with my grandpa, brother and parents. So much for the new year day, quiet and as unassuming as any other day and I really loved it!
Sunday came by quickly and I packed my bag and headed for Bangalore in the afternoon train (as there were no tickets in the night). Reached Bangalore safe and uneventful. This blog post is the last event for the day (okay after me and Das watched Legally Blonde 2-a pathetic and highly disappointing movie!).
I was home on 31st morning. Did some shopping over the day and played Dungeon Siege for the remaining part. At 9 pm, got into the cozy bed in the living room (with the TV in the front) and started watching 007 movie "Die Another Day". I was half asleep by 10.30 pm and before I could realize, I was sleeping to glory. The clock had stuck 12 and 2005 woke up while I was in deep slumber. Woke up at 7 am, fresh in mind and body. Ate all the good food my mom prepared, watched TV and had occasional chit-chat sessions with my grandpa, brother and parents. So much for the new year day, quiet and as unassuming as any other day and I really loved it!
Sunday came by quickly and I packed my bag and headed for Bangalore in the afternoon train (as there were no tickets in the night). Reached Bangalore safe and uneventful. This blog post is the last event for the day (okay after me and Das watched Legally Blonde 2-a pathetic and highly disappointing movie!).
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