Saturday, October 29, 2005

Thoughts from American drivers

Strictly humor


Hummer H1 - Big guys with big hearts
Hummer H3 - Small guys with big hearts
Porsche - Going through mid life crisis
Mini - Some confused europeans
Mercedez - business men not doing that well
BMW - People with young hearts
Lexus - I wish I was single
Audi - Responsible men looking for freedom
VW - I am not exactly german though
Camry - I have two kids
Wrangler - Why can't I get a stable relationship
Liberty - Why am I driving this?
Corvette - I made a lot of money in 80s

What is this madness?

And one more terrorist attack. If the people behind this attack wanted to send a message, then sorry - The music of democracy is too loud to hear you. We didn't hear you in Mumbai, we didn't hear you in New York, We didn't hear you in Spain, we didn't hear you in London and we didn't hear you in Delhi. I hope its' condemnation and repurcusion is loud enough to make you deaf.

Monday, October 24, 2005

How geek are you?

If you are in the computer industry sooner or later you will stumble upon the geek test. Some people actually feel proud of the geek score, higher the better. You may also find the self proclaimed geeks around. The problem with these tests are that they are not multi geographical and culturaly relevant. I did take one of these a while ago and found the questions to be obscure. It asks if you have watched a certain movie. If you are living outside states, you may not even find the movie released. Or, you may not even know how good the movie is to spend time and money to find it. The same is true with novels. The question doesn't ask you if you like or have read a certain genre, but specifics of a title. That is incorrect. What really matters is how much interest you show when you get that opportunity. How quality inputs you provide on a certain geeky topic. It matters how influenced you are by another geek. And I don't think writing such a blog at 1:40AM in the morning counts.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Who should be your team lead?

These are my assessments as I am no manager but based on when and why I felt comfortable with my lead. Here are some nine tips :


1. He should be some one with good communication skills, a good listener and sincere
to his work.

2. He should not be in the same grade level as you are.

3. He should be atleast two grades higher or 3 years senior if possible.

4. If a team constitutes of similar grade level developers, then make them individual
contributors and component leads. The project manager (or an architect) should take the
responsibility of being the team lead.

5. He should have some hands-on exposure to the related technology you are
implementing your solution in.

6. The job of a lead should never be collecting status and maintaing spreadsheets. He
will soon lose the respect of the team members.

7. One who could bring some real value.

8. One who is a good mediator and arbiter.

9. One who could become a manager anytime but is not interested in it.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

A new bond? I am eager!

I am eagerly waiting for Daniel Craig as the James Bond. Layer cake is freaking good, good performance. Good stuff.

Friday, October 14, 2005

A new bond? So what?

So we have a sixth bond. Bond is one brand which sure needs some major overhauling. Sean is still the best among them. Roger Moore was the closer ones. I lost interest in the bonds since they lost the character and became more of gadget men. PB was okay but no different from other action heroes of his time. I haven't seen the Layer cake yet which Mr Craig the new bond is more famous for. May be a prospect movie for the weekend before I give my report card.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Who says Computer industry is immature?

Okay! The computer industry has been around for enough years to be compared with others. The best part is it has started well. Can you add few more horse powers to your car after you buy it? In computers you can! Just add more RAMs. All you can do with some old food is to throw it all. With computers you can hook them up together and make a network. Ask Andy Bechtolsheim and he might tell you some tricks to create a super computer out of them. Can you replicate your bank account some where else? With computers you can replicate your data any number of times. How fast can you search for an old friend using your phone? With computers (with ofcourse appropriate service behind) your odds are much higher. In essence the time has come when the core sector industries start treating the computer industry with some respect, and learn a thing or two from it instead. Okay my time to have some dinner!

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Build or bust

I am no biker but just love this show. The problem of the show is its' slow pace. They stress on whats not working instead the progress made and I hate the zombic music too. But the intensity is too high to miss. Isn't there a similarity between this show and the apprentice? These guys are hands on - the real deal. The last show in which Joe M. won was gosh grueling. I only want to see the camera man and the producer to shut up during the shoot. They hurt more in their nonsense talking than to help the builder. Hope to see more of Bill Walls and Joes. Thanks Russel Mitchel for bringing the real apprentice.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

What not to solve?

Every now and then I keep mentioning the people who I really enjoyed working with. One name which I kept omitting was my past manager of three years - Trey Marshall. This MBA from Carnegie Millan - a critique of overkilled solutions is one who leaves his impression. The two things which I learned working with him are : what not to solve? and what a running system means? Two not so simple questions as they seem to be. Sometimes as developers, as analysts and as business owners we don't understand the problem statement clearly and usually get carried away on what the system should do? And knowing what not to solve is as difficult of a question as of knowing what should be solved. The second is the value of a running system. A running and a scalable system is better than a utopic one on papers and discussions. The system which runs is the one which sustains. Being practical is one more reason of my admirations for him.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

What does the Sun-google announcement mean?

Nothing and a lot depending on where they go from here. Google no question can be a huge delivery platform. The service as well as software application downloads. I was expecting a lot more from the announcement though. May be a huge hardware sale? or, Openoffice functionality on web? Due to a shear increase in the bandwidth the time has come when the applications can be made available on web on broadbands. May be a user session mobility through a web platform? i.e, mix-n-match of sunrays and web. But, nothing of that sort happened. A let down for now but very promising for the future. These are the two technology driven companies and who knows if some sort of consortium is in the making. Is yahoo listening?