Give me a Bharat Ratna

Indian politicians once again demonstrated how stupid they can be. They are now fighting for "their candidates" to be the next Bharat Ratna - the highest civilian award. Atal Bihari, Kanshi Ram, Karunanidhi and Jyoti Basu are the names popped up. Actually, We common people are the real Bharat Ratnas for who there is no difference between a Muslim, Tamil, Brahmin or a Bengali. Look at the list of awardees in the past, the only one even close enough to these Gems "Is WE" (Remember Times'?).

The truth about Nano

Tata, Cheap, India - No I am not talking about off-shoring. This is Tata Nano a new $2500 car specially targeted for four member middle class families in India who hitherto could only afford to drive scooters with two kids and the wife on it. Its the price that is the catchiest of all - The world's cheapest car on road. This car also reminds the world of a middle class who so far have been hidden under the shadows of the glimmer and shine of recent economic success the country has enjoyed. A wall around four wheels for some protection that the scooter is so infamous for besides the pleasure of owning a Car that still a distant dream for millions. All said, one thing that this car should not claim to be is being the cheapest car of the world. Cheap? Is it even road worthy in some of the other countries? A total of 33BHP, no airbags and a top speed of just 65mph does not qualify it on many roads including that of the World's biggest auto market - America. But its okay if its not street legal on US roads, it is perfect for millions of Indians. It is not meant for America. Just drop the "Cheapest" claim and enjoy the ride.

btw, one of my friend pointed out this still being the cheapest car in the world. It just happens that no other company ever targeted this segment.

Why Coherence?

So Why do you use a Database? When we solution architect a system and consider a database, what is the core motive of doing so? Data Persistence - A common response. But is that really true? If I have a hard-disk and I save a file in it but somehow for some funky reason if my application cannot access that file, even though the process of persistence might have succeeded, it is of no use because I can not access it. So really as a "solution" its not about persistence it is about availability. Data availability is the real reason why we consider a database. Of course other goodies come along with it. Databases take the approach of persistence to address the problem of data availability.
When we talk about Cache though our perception changes. Its a small short-lived "local space" from where we can access the data Faster. Hmm! So really a Cache and a database they both revolve around the data availability but with different approaches and different problem space. One around Persistence and the other around speed. Oracle Coherence fills the gap. If we can guarantee the All-data availability with faster access why would you ever consider going to a database to fetch it? This problem space is where Data Grids feed. The features of the Cache with the goodies of Database. Of course it is not this straight forward but at a very high level it is. A set of interconnected memory heaps managing Objects, working together with infrastructures of Data Queryability(sp?), managing object life, failover and continuous availability is what Oracle Coherence has to offer.

Is this a replacement of an ORM? - No. This is not a replacement of anything. It addresses the gaps of many technologies - Application Servers, Database servers, Messaging but it does not replace any. ORM only addresses the Impedance mismatch between a relational data-model and hierarchal domain-model. Coherence only manages the in memory serialized data. The data can be loaded from a relational database or LDAP or Flat files. It does offer to integrate Hibernate or Toplink with the Grid through CacheStore though.

If we have different kind of machines in a grid, Is the Speed of Grid same as the slowest node? Have you downloaded a movie from a P2P system? The chunk of data you fetch or put from/on a slower system will be slower but the data fetched from a faster system will be faster. Coherence is a P2P implementation. Yes, homogeneity matters and is important with your network switches. We can connect any type of system to a Grid either as active members or Extend Clients (decision after system analysis).

You only wish to conjoin a Rail engine with a Corvette to achieve Performance and Capacity in one system. It does not work that way. Enabling and Disabling "High Performance with High Capacity" is not a Checkbox option. This is a development process. If you need high speed magnetic train, you need to build it that way. This is the reason why the programming model of Coherence is manual use of APIs.

The cry baby wins the race

Nothing against her (Just a humor). How could you cry being a Presidential candidate? Where was "I am so tough" and "I am so experienced" phrases? But looks like people liked it. So are we going to brace ourselves when Ahmedinazad (Or which ever way it is spelled) threatens to blow up America, instead of 1000 missiles launched at him, for a teary letter - "Please don't do it, I love the public service"? How come McCain didn't cry? Even after unquestionable record for the country, when it seemed nobody was listening to him. He did not cry. He won! Thats called TOUGH.

Dog vs Monkey

There is an allegation that Bhajji called Andrew Symonds a Monkey during the second Cricket Test. There are no "proofs" as no one else heard it but Symonds, the charge Bhajji denies. "If" it was said in a bad taste then Bhajji deserved what he got. If not then then this is a start of a very bad blood between these two cricketing teams. Said it or not, but does anyone remember the Cartoon showing Pakistan as a Dog to the American Army? A lot of voices we heard in support of that sketch based on what a "Dog" means to this culture - A very loyal and close friend. These voices not only came from America but from Australia too. Remember? Remember? I know these incidences are not connected but I am curious where those voices are in Australia today that supported the "Dog" comment as being okay. If Dog is good in one culture how come Monkey should be challenged in the other? For the Pete sake, Parents call their Kids Monkey on their mischiefs what a big deal? Professionalism is not just about winning, its losing gracefully too. The world respected the Australian Cricket team for years for what they have achieved. That respect now is at risk.

Steve Bucknor is a jerk..

..And he has a history of giving wrong decisions against Indian' batsmen. Winning and Losing is a part of the game. But losing because of continuous bad decisions deserves a kick on this Umpires' @$$. Oz.. you did not win your record 16th.. Mindless SB gifted it to you!

And Indians: You did not deserve to win but yes did not deserve to lose this way either. In fact the second test was India's if the Umpires had some open eyes and alert ears. On the other hand, In all the four innings this had become a repetition: Jaffer out early (Replace him), Dravid slow as hell, A few struggles in the middle (If they succeed), Yuvraj totally useless in 5-day matches, Bhajji and Kumble managing to harass and then quick wickets at the end. This is not how a strong Test team plays. This series has exposed where Oz's weaknesses lie, so work on it.

Only if this was (politically?) possible

(Next)
Vice President: Joe Biden
First Lady: Elizabeth Edwards
Minister of Defense: John McCain