I am back! (doing something which I, I think, I do better than something which I was doing all these three days.) But that something I do better is something which is not really required.Who cares!

Time to put something running in my mind to rest. Time to move on with something else.Time to stop thinking.Something in my mind tells me when you stop thinking, it feels good.

PT masters

As I play Lynnrd Skynnrd, I came to know that they named their group after their PT master, Leonard Skinner.

School days are unique, because we enjoyed small bursts of freedom, amidst the tightening noose.
The PE periods or the P.T. periods were unique. Our school PE periods were of two types :-

a) Games :- Where we would dutifully divide into "Boys" and "Girls". Boys used to play cricket , volleyball (in high school). Girls used to play with rubber rings.The PT master would catch a puff of smoke in the nearest ubiquitous pettige angadi if the PE period was a games period.

b)Drills :- Base drummer hits the big fat drum.PT master whistles One-two-three-four.
"Sudeep stretch your hands fully" whack comes the stick.Usually whacks from PT sirs were on the knuckles. It used to pain like hell.

c)Marchpast periods :- The whistle , the scorching sun , the marchpast and the salute to the chief guest.And make a straight line with a one-and-a half-arm-distance.
eyes right! check 1 - 2 - 3 -4 .......left right left

The PE masters were sometimes the only adult men in my school (apart from the security guard).There were fun, when we came to high school. I remember my earliest PT master was a big hit with the girls , who became a police constable. The second PT master was a flutist. He had scolded me when I had laughed during the national anthem, as a buffalo passed in front of me, I could not control laughter! The third PT master was a notorious fellow. He promised the whole school hockey sticks and left the school after collecting the money....The fourth one was a major flirt with the teachers and a very close friend of ours at high school.Thats the first time I ever bunked a class with my PT master and went to the movie "Gentleman". At school level bunking a day was considered as "blasphemy" (at least at my school).At middle school level I dont remember nothing else but the canes.It seems like a long forgotten past.

Music : Lynnrd Skynnrd - Free Bird.

Question for the Euclids

I found this info about Googolhedron here


Googolhedron - A 3 dimensional shape bounded by 1 x 10^100 similar polygons. This shape would look very much like a sphere. Having this many sides or facets would make it smoother than any man made object. Although, you could never have a googolhedron because there are not a googol particles in the universe.


Does it mean that a PERFECT sphere has an infinite number of polygons and hence does not exist?

How many faces does a sphere have ?

I just read an article on bigger needles for fat people. . However, one thing which is objectionable the heading which reads:-

Long Needles For Large Butts
More obesity means even syringes aren't long enough anymore.
What the hell are we so hungry for?

Why the @%#@$#@ are journalists bothered abt food habits of people ?

Well , this obsession with thinness in women is quite recent and the thin look is IN for sometime.Kate Moss , Esther Canadas typify this extremely thin waif look.But, if you see the 14/15/16th century paintings of the french painters and italian painter, BOTH women and men have some fat on their tummies. The catch is healthiness. And if you have a healthy look , like the laughing budhdha on your face, it is just great ! The movie shrek captures this sentiment very well.

I remember this proverb in Kannada :-

Oota tann itche , NoTa parara itche.....

I will add one more modification to the above proverb :-

Diet Doctor itche.

Current Music : INXS - Beautiful Girl

Prof v/s student

Scene 1: Project submission (intermediate)

Lopars: Sir, we are here for the demo.
Prof: uhuu

Lopars: This system is so *** intelligent, given a minimal amount of input can learn the state of the world.
Prof: uhuu, what is novel about this?

Lopars: ( who have just heard that frameworks are in ).
hmmm, we have the framework built, we can test out our new ideas, when we get them.
Prof: uhuu

Housefly idea
==========
A housefly idea is a special kind of huLa idea. This type of idea is the kind that irritates you at night, has the buzzz, and come daylight, vanishes.

After many housefly ideas, finally got a novel idea, and all ends well with the course.

Somedays ago, we had a session with a few GSM architects and seniro managers of our clients.
These people have been working on GSM since 1991 (when I was 11 years old).Our clients are one of the top telecom companies.

Then there was the questions round.


Question :-
============
Since we at India, are doing monotonous maintenance and sustenance work, we will never climb up the value ladder. We can never become architects like you guys, isnt it ? When will we get into development work ?


One of the architects put it short & sweet and said :-

If you people are motivated by challenge, then the difficulty level of bugs are as follows :-

1. Bugs found during Coding and Design (least complexity)
2. Bugs found during component level integration
3. Bugs found during system testing.
4. Bugs found during maintenance after deployment.(extremely complex)

But the person who raised the question was not exactly convinced.
There is a general notion that development is a superior job among us.
Sometimes it is tr.ue, but imo, each job has its share of challenges (for people driven by challenges). You dont need to look down upon system testing and maintenance.

Then the MBA manager(IIT+IIM guy) came to the picture.He gave a beautiful answer.

Ofcourse development is important, there are people who are doing development,But they lack the big picture most of the time.The real DREAM development job is a responsible one done by a few percentage of architects, who sketch out the functionalities based on their experience.If you consider extremely successful product companies like Microsoft, then more than 70 % of the engineers are into maintenance and sustenance.If your company is spending most of the time just in development and more development,and no time on sustenance, it means your products are not successful in market. The greater the number of products into sustenance and support, the better they have fared in the market and they are more successful.

I agree totally with the MBA guy.

Speaking of Microsoft, Bill was in Bangalore.He announced a Code for Bill Contest in Palace Grounds.

However, it seems VTU is making it compulsory to use Microsoft Products like Word and Excel for VTU Final year Projects and this has pissed of the Free Software Community.

In my previous post ,I meant by "Flexi timings is a slow killer in my opinion.", I meant "Flexi timings is a slow killer of teamwork " and nothing else.

I still believe that flexi timings kill team work no matter even if you use holographic projections for attendees of meetings,(like the ones they show in the movie "Minority Report" for conducting TEAM MEETINGS)

So , guys at office , no offense .... // grins //

Avuncular post

As of now, Ambassador which was the Maharaja of Indian Cars has no takers among laymen car buyers.However this is a very popular car with the Defense personnel. Although the car may look a little bigger than your esteems and ford ikons it is definitely a pleasure to sit inside the car, and it adds a classic look especially if it has steel bumpers.The best part is it is a totally Indian car.A big leader inside a sedan looks really bland. It has to be an ambassador or a limo!

Speaking of army people , I met a friend of mine who gave up his job at infy and joined the navy two years ago. He was just telling me about how it feels being six months on ship and six months on land and all that. It seems a ship travels max at 60kmph ! Most ships travel at 30kmph and 40kmph and can be self-sufficient for 15 days.If it is raining , the ship acts like a giant-wheel causing sea sickness, to people in it.It takes 5 days to sail nonstop to dubai from Visakapatnam. He had also sailed to Lisbon. The best part was , he used "she" subconsciously to refer a ship, not "it". eg:- "She can sail nonstop for 15-days".....

The cons + pros of an army(or navy) is authority. It teaches you to conduct properly in front of authority.However if there is too much authority and your bosses are a bunch of fools, then you have a problem.

One of the biggest pros of army is DISCIPLINE. It teaches you to respect time and teaches a lot about commitment.Something we learn in school and unlearn in college and take pride in being "free".As I open my mailbox today I see a forward titled "Inside Google Office".The obsession and lust for google continues all over the world.It shows employees bringing dogs, cats and having a colorful cubicles with photos and stickers all around the place, pizzas and cola bottles in the cubicles...etc and yes "flexi timings". Flexi timings is a slow killer in my opinion. (and yes my opinion may change according to my mood).It just ruins discipline and people take pride in saying "My highest priority is family work". Why work late or why work early. Just come at one time and go back at the proper time and ensure that work completes on time.Ofcourse I know I sound like a BHEL factory worker today.


Bah!

Kummi

guys,
Kumar is in Bangalore. He just called me up and confirmed.....Guys we gotta meet this weekend.
Zeeds enanthiya ?

Depp's anthem

The Depp has a new song from tomorrow as he interfaces with a chinese from tmrw on the telecon.The song goes something like this :-


Mera naam Chin chin choo
Chin chin choo baba chin chin choo
Raath chandni main mein aur tu
Hello Mr. How do you do ?

Pickup line for Marilyn

I just finished a course exam. It was an interesting course. Great teacher. Also got to read up ( not understand ) lines like the following one:
What is the minimum number f = f(n,e) such that every set X of n points in the plane containts a subset S of at most f points such that ever triangle containing atleast en points of X contains atleast one point of S?
Yuppa.

never work for a Indian IT service company

if you are not ready for long hours at office.
Well that leaves you with an option of MNC IT service companies like IBM, Accenture and product companies.

Product companies are for people who missed out on research and want to achieve something on linux. Alas I dont fit in here ..

I want good money and a 9-5 job. Any pointers ??

lemme check where's papanna ..

man!

life has become very busy from yesterday....i am afraid it'll continue for atleast for two weeks....
Telephonic conferences at 10:00 :-(....sounds very sleepy for me.....

After the "live" face-to-face training,....now to use ip fones for training......
Difficult to communicate work on phone...meetings/status updations are okay....but I am not sure how well this will go :-(


Current music: Communication Breakdown - Led Zeppelin

Generally, there are two attitudes in people who are career minded.

(This post promises to be like a management guru talk , but then who cares, read ,if you are bored)

1.The somwehat traditional people chose "stability" as one of the chief feature of their careers.Defensive approach, naturally.These people tend to settle down

2.The somewhat adventurous people chose "mobility" as one of the chief feature of their careers.These people tend to move on

The traditional approach was especially pronounced in our Indian society. Ever since the caste system, where the jobs became hereditary, we have, kind of, adhered to the conventional approach. Even as late as the 80-s in India, we had families of lawyers and doctors and engineers. The grandfather lawyer wanted the grandson to be a lawyer.The betel-nut grandfather wanted his grandson to grow betel nuts and looks after the several acres of land he had.Although, there were mobility minded people, family rules and culture had such an effect that the son's career was already decided (most of the times) the moment he was born.

However there was a paradigm shift in the late 80s.

-Probably people learnt that change in job may actually make life more interesting.

-Stagnation & Meaninglessness irritated the hell out of people. Especially people in the cities, whose life, I guess is more complicated than a simple (yet very hard working) life in the village.

Why did it happen in the late 80s. I guess, thats when India started to grow rapidly, than in the 70s or early 80s.

NOW, In India, "mobility mentality" exists NOT ONLY in the white collar jobs, but also blue collar jobs.Blue collar workers are also very mobility minded. I talked yesterday to an auto driver, who was a bhel puri boy before and before that, he worked as an electrician apprentice fixing serial lights for house warming ceremonies.I asked him what prompted him to change the profession. He said "jana change kelthaare, adikke" and that he was motivated by more money which he was sure he couldnt have by sticking to one kind of profession.

In white collar jobs, Software Engineers & Managers are expecially mobility minded because of the various options available.

I guess, the very "mobility" based mentality started with the birth of the United States of America.I guess , it didnt exist even in the "old world " of the Europe, Asia.


Music: Iron Maiden - Brave New World.

Mr.Teacher has discovered that he is a big bummer. If you try to over explain things you will land confusing the people and also straining yourself because of yaking non-stop.Thats when your ears become allergic to your own voice.Your brain asks your mouth to shut the eff up.This had happened once sometime ago.It's happening again.

So, The Teacher has to adopt a different strategy.It is about silence. Just like Richie's staccato dialogs when playing snooker123 or Mortal Combat. I am gonna be watching.......and giving comments.
Yabba Dabba Dooo!

The weather outside is wet.....

Animals and Roads

In our city, the unsaid rule about zebra crossing is :-

"Zebra crossings are meant only for zebras.

Since we dont have many zebras here (I have not seen a herd of zebras crossing any of our roads, till now) the zebra crossings have lost significance.Ask a pedestrian about "why dont you use a zebra-crossing" , he may laugh loudly at you.

This made me think about how animals cross roads.

Animals exhibit unique behavioral patterns while crossing roads :-

a) Stray dogs, usually, are damn good crossers of road....They know a driver's mind.Especially if the driver is a 2-wheeler driver or a four wheeler driver.But they always underestimate the lorries.

b) Cows and buffaloes are really clueless...They STAND.But the best way to deal with a cow on the road, is to blast your way from behind the cow.Cows cant turn around very quickly. However, be careful when it is watering the roads, lifting its tail up :-p

c)Pigs are very confusing. You may find them in marshy places/dirty places. They confuse the hell out of you.

d)Hens and adamant roosters are the most fickle road crossers and most dangerous among animals. You got to be really careful.They can confuse even a cyclist and make him fall.

Music: Pink Floyd - Animals

Happy Birthday, Mr. Tejaswi

Hope you have a great day studying for all the tests. Anyway you are zipping in as 26, soon Richie , me and Kummi are going to follow.

Phone calls bantha.

Current Music : Lionel Richie - Hello, Is it me u r looking for ?

Teachers

Back after a break.
(No, my back is not broken.....I will take up the posture during typing anything in a later post)

Had a good two day training. This time I was the trainer :-)
I had a great time in explaining things.It is fun to explain.

But I guess a great teacher INSPIRES people not just explains things.
Thats why we remember (atleast most of us remember) our primary school teachers. Their job is really difficult.Try explaining "London bridge is falling down " to a small child.

And being a primary school teacher, is selfless, also.
Because if you are a teacher to a BE/MS/PhD, there might be a motive of putting your name on the project book cover.But as a primary school teacher, you teach something which people KNOW.It is very service oriented profession.

Inspiring adults is very difficult, because you got to be a super-achiever to inspire adults. Otherwise most adults dont give you the respect.

I had attended a small talk about "Why IT clicks in India" by Prof.Sadagopan and I was tocuhed when one of the slides read, "Our Village school masters , still do a good job".

Sepaking of teachers, I observed this link on the VTU official site. One thing which is objectionable is printing salaries against the names of the lecturers.Does a company print the salaries of its employees just like that ?
Another objectionable things is preparing a godammn excel sheet. Why cant they prepare a decent html page listing their profiles? It looks like a godammn voters list page.We, as Indians will never get the right method to do things.

If it is an internal document, why circulate it on the web ?

Current Music : Jethro Tull - Teacher

Some kannada scenes / dialogs

A film is mostly a 80s Kannada Movie if it satisfies one of the following axioms :-

0. Stereotype #0
==================
A god is shown after the certification of the movie.A shloka by PB Srinivas or SPB.

1. Stereotype #1
==================
Police Senior Boss (like Lohitashwa) telling the Hero (like Devaraj or Shanker Nag)

Inspector Pratap , nimmanta NISHTAVANTHA POLICE ADHIKARAIGALU irodrinda ne, namma samaajadalli nyaaya neeti innu irodu...Keep up the good work , my boy! Naavu police aagi Dasayya antha GOMUKHA VYAAGRA rannu nyayalakke tarabeku

"Dasayya" referred in the above sentence is mostly a rowdy MLA or an MP.He usually has a pervert/spoilt brat son in his late 20s addicted to drugs and women.

2. Stereotype #2
==================
Hero(like Dr.Rajkumar or Ambarish) goes to a hifi party where "drinks" are being served.One wealthy man offers the hero a drink.Hero says :-

Sorry sir, nanage idara ABHYASA villa. And takes a torrino or goldspot with a straw


3. Stereotype #3
==================
Oh No!! Damsel in Distress!!!

It is a horrible time for the heroine! She is being chased by the villain and her garments are torn by the villain. She shouts the same old cliched dialog :-

Kaapaadi...Yaardru Kaapaadi

When the villain actually grabs her, the shout becomes,
Bidu Nanna

The hero bashes up the villian and later offers his suit, to cover her up.
He is the chivalrous man.

4. Stereotype #4
==================
Hero (like Dr.Rajkumar or Tiger Prabhakar) goes to a BAR or PUB, to track the baddies ...As bars and pubs are regular hangouts for the rowdies!

Our Heroes are actually police officers or CID officers(not CBI) dressed as dancers to shake a leg in the cabaret song.....Hero says :-

Hello Ms Rosy to the female cabaret dancer.

The question which bugs me in this aspect is :- WHY DID VAMPS HAVE CHRISTIAN NAMES like Rosy or Lucy instead of Annapurna or Savithri ?

5. Stereotype #5
==================
Whenever a hero or a heroine park their car , they always park the car just near to the building (or in front of the building)....But in reality :-(((((....you have to search FOR MANY ROADS to find a decent place to park your car !!! This is true in Hollywood movies also!


6. Stereotype #6
==================
Even though there are n-opponents for a hero in the action scene, the opponents keep waiting dumbly to be beaten up by the hero...


7. Stereotype #7
==================
The BEST cliched scenes in the climax is:-
To tie the mother of the hero, the heroine , child etc etc and put them in cages......The hero first does the initial bashing and finally the police arrive (the background music for the police ALWAYS has to be sidedrum....You cannot have a pungi here, I know)

8. Stereotype #8
==================
Ending:-
a)Shubham (if it is a comedy)
b)the tagline/theme/inference of the movie(if it is a tragedy).


Current Music : Unknown - Dhairya Ve Himalaya

The interview

Actors: Self, Company (big brother)
=============================

Big brother stooge: so tell me about your prior work.
self: I used to write next gen rocket + dezign + code + test. Can i do that in your company?

stooge: Nope.
( awkard pause )

stooge: One tech question. swap nth node from last with nth from beg in singly linked list.
self: hmmm.

self: I shall swap values not pointers. Should be okay?
stooge: yeah.

self: After struggling for 5 minutes to write C code, I had to resort to writing pseudocode for this :D, and then C code again.

stooge: any questions
self: none
oh , I had one, when will I know my rezult.

stooge: 2 weeks

end rezult -> failure :(, and hence the big brother, stooge. Good thing, so many flaws in my interview, that I should improve :D.