Sunil Choudhary 's Blog

Building a Community

2012-01-24T23:32:00.002+05:30

Bullding a community is not about connecting people to you
its about connecting them to each other.

(Coming from an asocial person like me its wierd but it makes sense. Let me know what you think if you a know me personally)

Who will clean this mess of our home ?? Snehla Masood loved India. Do you ?

2011-08-16T18:17:00.004+05:30

Its very common for people who raise their voices against the power to get brutally murdered /burned etc
in the same vein today ... one more person gives her life.

This is 14th RTI activist who is dying like this ... clearly RTI is something corrupt people are afraid of.

the news is ( here )
" BHOPAL: In a broad day light murder, an RTI activist and a strong supporter of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement, Shehla Masood was shot dead around 11.30 am on Tuesday.

Unidentified assailant shot her dead from point blank range while she was leaving in her car to attend a demonstration in support of Anna Hazare.

About 35 years old, Shehla was still sitting in the driver's seat when she was attacked, however, no one heard any gun shot. When the car didn't move for a while, the family members came out only to find that she had collapsed on one side with blood oozing out from her chest.

She was shot in her chest. The murder took place just in front of her house in Koh-e-Fiza locality of Bhopal. However, more details are still awaited as a post- mortem is still on.

The seriousness of the crime could be ascertained from the fact that the director general of police SK Rout and Additional director general Intelligence Rishi Kumar Shukla also inspected the crime scene along with the IG and SSP of Bhopal.

Shehla was an RTI and a wild life activist and had annoyed many people while seeking information and raising issues.

The crime scene suggested that the murder was executed by some professional killer with a firm arm fitted with a silencer. However, the SSP Bhopal Adarsh katiyar told the TOI "there are many theories coming up but it is too early to say anything about the murder as the post mortem is still on."

Shehla Masood was very active on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Her last status update on facebook said, "Gandhi: "the purpose of civil resistance is provocation." Anna has succeeded in provoking the government and the opposition. Hope he wins us freedom from corruption. Meet at 2 pm Boat Club Bhopal."

Masood didn't reach the venue."

Is it democracy ???? I doubt that we are free yet. The white Britishers left behind their indian versions to loot the nation. and create misfortune and fear.

the question is

Are you scared to rise for the country you love?
Do you love your country ? who will clean it for you .(Do you expect someone to come from outside and clean it up for you)

Update : Its 11:36 pm and I can not sleep (esp after watching the movement thats getting momentam) Google around i find something Snehla Masood complained of. (letter dated 2010)

An IPS officer making threatening calls to her. harassing her since 2008. She gave evidence in form of CD which must have contained the recording. letter is dated 2010 and may not be significant for 2011 but an IPS officer being implicated for harassing a social activist. Now thats going too far.

Same for Anna being picked from his Home and taken directly to Jail. and now not being allowed to go to JP park. Is Govt going nuts.

Was having a disscussion about the role of Sonia Gandhi. and we all in family agreed that she will play the good cop role once she is back from her medical condition which is being treated abroad. (in case the things backfire that is).

Dying WhistleBlowers : need for a strong act. (Blog post by Snehla Masood)

Diwan-e-Ghalib The first sher is a Babbar sher.

2011-08-10T13:35:00.000+05:30

Please help me understand it (you can use comments )

नक्श फरियादी है , किसकी शोखी-ए-तहरीर का
कागज़ी है पेरहन, हर पेक़रे तस्वीर का

कावे - कावे सख़्त जानीहान-ए-तन्हाई ना पूछ
सुबहा करना शाम का , लाना है जु-ए-शीर का

जज्बाए- बे - एख़्हत्टयारे-शौक़ देखा चाहिए
सीन-ए-शमशीर से बाहर है,दम शमशीर का

आगही दामेनशिदन जिस कदर चाहे बिछाए

मुद्धा आँकन है, अपने आलमे -तक़रीर का

बस के हूँ ग़ालिब असिरी में भी आतशजेरे पा
मु-ए-आताश, दीदा , है हल्का मिरी ज़ंजीर का

Stories that never gets old.

2011-06-11T20:28:00.000+05:30

Saw X men -The first class today.

Some of the VFX work for this movie is done from India. Sometime back had an opportunity to look into the works of Rhythm and Hues. (they also have an office in Pune,India the same city I am blogging from).

Amazing movie. and quality work Same for works done by Anibrain and of course Animagic

Thanks guys for bringing such a fantastic story and so rich visuals.

An old lady asked me one question. Why are Indian Animation so poorly made.

I do not have a ready answer yet.
I only hope that it gets better for Indian Movie Animation as well.

The richness of mystery and legend as we have in India is comparable to none. Its only that someone needs to tell the story in the right way. We need storytellers. and not religious fanatics.

Indian Railway site - the real time interface.

2011-01-08T14:14:00.005+05:30

Lately due to winter fog most of the trains are running late. Especially those to-fro Delhi

I noticed something amazing in Indian Rail site

http://indiarailinfo.com

Train Arrival Timings near New Delhi/NDLS on Sat Jan 8, 2011

Now this is an amazing piece of information considering that trains are delayed by even 7 hrs (Bhopal Express in my case)

You also have interface with google maps to give live running information.

Not only this .. you can get most of the views you could only dream of I loved the way I could just login to this site via my facebook or yahoo id. and put real time observation of my own. As of now there are 28758 members which i expect to multiply quite soon considering the fact that you do not need to create new id and just reuse your facebook id/pwd etc

3 cheers for the information age.

A goal for life

2010-12-12T19:34:00.003+05:30

A young girl in India had a goal in mind. She met A P K Abul Kalam Azad and mentioned her goal/wish. I feel she wished something that APJ wished too and perhaps every Indian who loves Indian motherland.

She wished - "I want to live in developed INDIA".

Thankfully I feel I can do something about it I will do my part. However small but i will.

Lets see how it goes when life gets a purpose bigger than yourself.

My action list.

---------------

1) I am really sad about the disillusioned youth today. They are as ignorant about the changing world as i was 10 years back. May be I can take some free classes to guide them up

2) Some open source initiatives. and perhaps try for something new in there. Say think about a interface to link Reliance USB internet via a iPOD touch.

3) Donate some money. I do not have millions but I guess something is better than nothing. you only need to have a big heart.

4) TeachforIndia : I got to know about this initiative while in Delhi. (Heard about them in Radio while shuttling to Gurgaon) Lets see how it goes.

5) Clothes .. I think i have plenty of them which i can just give away. Its very cold here in Delhi and definately there are people who can use them.

Well these are things on top of my mind. .. Hope they get better with time and God helps me in creating wealth not just for me but for everyone else.

Do you want to live in developed india Reader ????

... what did you do in last 7 days... for our country..

....last 7 years ??? do you plan to do something now ?

Do let me know in comments.

Hope for Bihar : Nitish/Lalu

2010-11-25T02:32:00.009+05:30

Lot of people only know Lalu. (rest everywhere else it was paaani kam)

Lalu has his charisma, and he with his rustic Angrezi has taken classes in IIM too for his good work in Railways, of course it was he who started the tea in a earthenware concept. (use and throw and this was totally green concept - no plastics - i loved it ). It was he who did a lot of what Railways is now. (Remember the railway reservation lines and the waiting .... and quotas that existed beforehand). Railway was loss making but he turned it around. and that too when there was competition from Air Deccan. 500 Rs tickets from Delhi to Mumbai anyone ??

I wanted to read the book that was written about how Lalu turned railways from lossmaking to profit making. and then

I got a chance to talk to a railway officer of some good repute about how Lalu did it ALL.

To my dismay he was totally indifferent to my opinion about Lalu. and instead was singing praises of Nitish Kumar's good work. He gave me examples of how the railway exam was totally cooked. ( Students would not mark a single answer on the answer sheet which would get automagically filled in by the time it reaches evaluation. and guess what FULL MARKS). Of course a lot of palms were greased. He talked about how HUGE ghotala was done about tonnes of iron and steel that is always omnipresent in Railways Godowns. He talked about private railway couches and railway lines loopholes being opened for pvt sector companies own godowns.

In each of these fronts he praised the good work of Nitish for the railways and he wished him best of luck in his works. I would love to know more about Nitish and the good work he is doing. Today's news brings a lot of hope for Bihar and its people who have been denied even basic form of security since a very very long time.

First Look at Lazy Activations of 3G services by Tata DoCoMo

2010-11-07T18:16:00.006+05:30

I consider 3G as an idea who's time has come. Especially for people like me in India who aspire to be at the forefront of being 'technology enabled'.

BSNL people never did anything good with their implementation. I guess somebody paid them money to sleep on their desks. Anyway I have a lot of expectations with tata docomo. as both (Tata and DOCOMO ) are very well known brands.

Here it goes.

After I sent 'ACT 3G' to 53333 they asked for around 2 hours to activate the service.

However they did activate it only after i called them to at least send settings.

Finally after 3 hours I started using 3G and yes it is FAST. :) love it.

Unfortunately Even though first 100MB download is free for next 3-4 days. they charged me for my surfing, 5 Rs 90 paise and secondly 20 paise when i checked for latest version of my mobile software. :( :(

BAD first impression, as first 100MB was supposed to be free.

When i called Customer support they tell, they had not yet credited 100MB to my account. and so I was billed. So here goes my 6 Rs and 10 Paise Bye Bye !!!!! (Although i do not miss the money i do feel this was by no means my fault).

Moreover they told, They will take 24 hours to credit this 100MB to my account. So ideally i can use this 100MB only after tomorrow ie 8th Nov if i do not want to be billed. So much for LAZY ACTIVATION. that leaves me with 2 days to use this 100MB. as this plan is only till 11NOV 2010.

All this free first 100MB is just a farce by Tata DOCOMO to iron out their own delivery channels. Its such a idiotic way to roll out a HUGE advantage as 3G to your customers. I would akin it to washing their UG in public.

Anyway .. I am in and lets see how it goes as lot of good things can happen over mobile internet RSS feeds being one of the best things i am looking forward to. Twitter and Yammer apps are second .. hopefully facebook...

Unfortunately i can not yet Putty to my servers using mobile. :( but thats ok.

Note:

It amazed me why Tata DoCoMo did not use Pre-Order. they could have taken down my number 2 days before they launched the service, knowing my intrest in 3G. But Customer care officials were not at all interested / aware of this simple business lever.

T shirt doodle for those who are dieting

2010-10-26T11:19:00.006+05:30

I recently did a timepass sketch for those who are dieting.

hope you enjoy it I would love to see it on a T-shirt.

if you notice close enough there is an elephant poop there as well. I thought that will add a punch. Ickkky Let me know if you DO NOT like it.

Reflections on past with my classmates.

2010-09-06T23:43:00.010+05:30

We had a get together two weeks ago in Mumbai for our MMS 2 Yr Batch of 2001 IIPS.

Had a great time together catching up latest updates about everyone.

I was quite happy that everyone was doing quite well and settled. Compare this to 9 years ago when we were all CONFUSED a lot, uncertain where the future will take us. A constant question was "Will we have to depend on our parents money all the time? What a shame!!!!"

These last 9 years, I have understood one thing about Education in Indian colleges, its so far apart from the reality. I wish if that could be better. There was a suggestion that unless there are more people from Industry who come to Institutes and provide training there will always be this Industry - Institute divide.

There was one of us who got into training stuff. Dale Carnegie and all 9 yards. I was seriously flattered when he mentioned that I inspired him by scribbling a note along with a sketch of him, or perhaps that was the beer. :)

Note:

1) Later he confided that the book was Write Better/Speak Better by Readers Digest)

2) I believe, If someone owns the book he should be able to write notes/scribble on sidelines and putting marks on important stuff he finds, that makes that book even more precious.

Healthy Wealthy and Wise

2010-08-26T23:16:00.004+05:30

I always look up to this phrase by Benjamin Franklin and wonder why its worded this way

Already a lot has been written about why Health is more important than Wealth. Lets not go there. and focus on the 'Wealth' part. Why its Wealth and not Rich.

Early to Bed and Early to rise

makes a man

Healthy Rich and Wise

Now someone told me Wealth means having some sizable money as well as time to spend it. No running after flights.. No running late corporate meetings.. . No broken promises with family. Wealthy person may not be able to afford a Jet Plane but he sure can take a First Class train ride home. Rich person is just that .. Rich

Most people search for Happiness when they are infact chasing money. Strange as it may seem Happiness and money are not linked.

Sayeen Itna Deejiye, Ja Mein Kutumb Samaye

Mein bhi bhooka na rahoon, Sadhoo na bhooka jaye

(Translation: God give me enough, that suffices me, my family as well as any guest that comes to our home)

Why not just focus on the work you do, enjoy it and pursue excellence in it.

So my next question would be ... What exactly do I/you do ? I would say

Try : I am a Senior Consultant working for Capgemini as Oracle Apps DBA for their production support system. (well true .. but thats not what i REALLY do )
Try : I am a Technical guy who keeps machines up and running 24x7x365 (despite any changes)
Try : I create wealth. (A long shot but thats what I would like to do eventually)

What would be your answers ?

PS: These days I just find my priorities to be shifting. May its just mid-life crisis. May be it happens to everyone. I wont know until those reading it comment :)

Bharat Bandh - Nation on strike

2010-07-05T20:29:00.006+05:30

Bharat Bandh is organized against the recent fuel hikes. A lot has been written about it in newspapers here and here. Coming to the basics .. if you raise cost of Fuel. Cost of everything else spirals up. Transportation is key in todays industrialized world. If you increase cost of Petrol by 4 rs/Lt think of cost of those apples who travel from Himachal to your doorstep. I think you will need to make yourself comfortable with chickoos .

I see people working at the lowly wages of 100Rs per day How will they survive. The corrupt lanes of Govt will never be able to understand the hardships that common man has to bear.

I do not think Indian Govt or even the whole Indias political system is doing anything right. They wait till the last moment until they can no longer sustain the eyewash policies that bring them to power. Promises that are broken. I remember when opposition came to power . Unfortunately they were so inefficient that people used to say " They take the bribe and still do not get the work done, at least in Congress rule when we give money our work gets done "

I know 100% that opposition can bring this Price rise/Inflation as a good election agenda. But they lack a strong leader who can be a visionary. (Where is Subhash Chandra Bose or Vallabh Bhai Patel ???? even JP Narayan would do), in short .. i do not see hope for India for at least next 10 years.

Sunday night 10pm: I receive an sms

"From GFM India Pune Capgemini offices will remain closed due to anticipated civil disturbance on 5th of July. Only critical functions will operate on this day"

This message smells of fear against a Hooliganism thats rampant in Indian Politics. "Close your shutters or we will break everything inside them".

Long time ago i heard of Japanese employees protesting by working an extra hour in their factories ... that seems like a distant reality. Instead people talk of enjoying an extended weekend

A dirty Datawarehouse

2010-07-02T22:08:00.005+05:30

For a moment think of Your home refrigerator as a Database. You store stuff. You use that stuff. Process that stuff and then when fridge gets empty you refill it. (probably every week/month) . You also clean it up and wash it from time to time and keep it tidy.

Now imagine this fridge to be a giant Warehouse. An ill managed DataWarehouse. Imagine finding food thats stops looking like food (you know what I mean) . Real keepers of the warehouse long gone and mgmt kept a security guard at the gate who only knows to operate the on/off switch.

Something similar happened with me today after i was choosen to have a look at a 10 year old DW. The people who managed it are long gone. and noone knows whats where and the datafiles are a mess (so long to expect OFA ) . Which files are important and which are redundant !!! No info nothing.

If Tom Kyte were to look into this He would have a stroke. (May God give him long life )

Anyway First things first

1) At least bought the file structures in place.

2) MOnitoring for the schemas and objects in use

3) Patitioning based on month is a must.

4) This DB though production not in archivelog mode when i found it, which makes me wonder why !!!!

5) 100MB Redo log size !!! ( sounds not right !!! )

6) This DW is attached to Informatica/COGNOS

(I do NOT know anything about Informatica/COGNOS (as yet!) so if anyone can chip in some info about Oracle databases for Informatica/COGNOS that could be great anyway Google is everyones friend)

Its a good learning experience,

PS1: Are datawarehouses supposed to be dirty ?? what are your experiences

PS2 :On a personal note, I am trying to move to Delhi ( Presently I am in Pune) Lets see how soon that gets materialized.

Career query: Oracle teacher to DBA / Fresher to Oracle DBA job

2010-06-29T19:42:00.006+05:30

Now a days i receive lot of career queries from people looking for Job in Oracle field in my mail box. Perhaps I am getting old ... :(

Anyway.. here are my consolidated thoughts on this topic.

Readers are encouraged to put their own thoughts in comments below

Hi Abhi,

I am not sure if I am qualified to answer your career queries. As it has been some time since i did my own job search.

I will try to consolidate what i feel and i hope it would be helpful to you.

- For, say every 20 developers that are hired there is only 1 DBA that is required

- Normally out of these 20 developers, manager chooses one to ALSO take care of DBA job for that particular project.

- Teaching DBA is no substitute for working in a high pressure production environment.

My suggestion :

1) Jump in IT job as developer (better chance 20:1 right !!! ) . Become that 1 person who also takes care of DB. and carve a niche for your work.

2) A lot of companies are doing recruitment including Capgemini. Unfortunately the information of walkins is available only at the last moment. Sometime back there was requirement in Chennai. Bangalore and Hyderabad are also Hot places for Walkins. (Pune walkin are there but the place has 4-5 it parks and they are all on very different corners of the city very hard to keep track of whats going on where).

3) One final para of wisdom:

what a lovely grain of sand you are

too bad you are lying on a beach.

(This becomes more true for people who are in India)

You may be surprised to know that during my job search days I trained myself for Java. Gave interview for Java and still I have no project where i worked in Java. Somehow life gave me options and I just went on with the flow. It seems strange that today Oracle owns Java and somehow my past passion for Java will somehow blossom in future times with OAF and ADF and Jdeveloper which are all closely related to Java development.

But who could have predicted that Oracle would buy Sun 10 years back. So go with the flow or go against or whatever ..just do not fail to enjoy the ride.

Are you picnic (ing)?

2010-06-21T13:01:00.002+05:30

A lot of people (including me) do a lot of internet surfing .. looking for the latest happenings. This thirst never dies down. There is always something new happening. Always someone, doing the next interesting stuff.

its so much effort just to gather all that data in your brain. But how much of this relentless information flow are you consuming. Is it not so that,

you are sitting besides a river (of information) just watching it flow. (and doing nothing).

People could say you are picnic (ing ) all the time.

Unfortunately information today comes with an expiry date. After sometime the information becomes stale and useless. I would recommend taking head out of the cyber surfing for a while and DO the real stuff.. (Like working on those lists which you prepared last weekend or that bike that needs servicing.. and that stepney wheel of Car that needs to be mended)

What say ?

Stories we tell

2010-06-18T14:53:00.003+05:30

The stories we tell ...Are the stories we are.

The Jester's Life

2010-05-31T20:42:00.004+05:30

Only few people close to me know my love for Art and Paintings. I can spend hours in art museum. I absolutely love it when i find a piece of art i feel very strongly about.

This time its "The Jester" by Jan Matejko - a Polish artist

There are people who like to talk and entertain people. But this requires interesting stories. But wait there is a short cut. You can always laugh on yourself. Self deprecating Humour. In Olden times these people were called Jester.

But how long. What happens when no-one needs a Jester. When the Jester wants to find the real person behind the mask. His life ahead

(BTW this picture below is of Stańczyk )

This Jester was employed by three Polish kings: Alexander, Sigismund the Old and Sigismund Augustus. He is the only person at a royal ball who is troubled by the news that the Russians have captured Smolensk. This event happened in 1514.)

Feeling stuck...

2010-05-22T18:13:00.006+05:30

(we have all felt like this at some point in our lives )

How many times you feel stuck.

How many times you come out of it ..

How many times its someone who helps you out.

and how many times do you come out of it yourself.

Have you ever thought about it...

Just ... remembering on a quite weekend.

Woes of Queues

2010-05-05T08:47:00.006+05:30

In India, for everything we have queues. There are queues to get water from the tanker/tap ... Even people who come to a wedding to get photographed with bride and groom. and there are queues for filling forms ... and the queues of unemployed lined up at a company office.

Looong serpentine queues and a person who takes care of the queue on a FIFO basis. An occaisional security guard to maintain order in the queue and that noone jumps their turns.

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: 55 Queue pour rentrer au Taj Mahal, Agra, India

Having websites changed all that. And e-commerce. Man that helped us a lot, We no longer have to be standing in Queues. (No there are no chairs for people who wait How can you have chairs for 500 people who show up for a vacancy that comes only once in an year)

If India is Plentyful of something, it is PEOPLE. You find them everywhere, everytime all the time. This creates an economy of SCARCITY. There is one job and 1000 applicants. There are 8 seats in tatkal quota of a Train Journey (2nd ac) and that will be filled in 15 minutes flat the moment tatkal quota opens at 8 AM in the morning.

If things stopped at that it could be better but we India are not a communist country. So we have backdoor entry for those who have money. You may wait in line for 8 hours to get 'dharshan' of your GOD or you may pay 5000 Rs and have a quick dharshan. You may not get a tatkal ticket if you want to get it 2 days before your journey but the railway agent will get you the ticket even minutes before your train leaves the platform.

'Whom are we kidding??? '

Why can not this country have a economics of plenty instead of economy of scarcity. What needs to be done. I sincerely wish there was enough for everyone. (including corrupt politicians and sleepy bureaucrates and not just common people who toil hard everyday to earn their livelihood)

Thinking in whole numbers

2010-05-02T08:17:00.009+05:30

Pune -Nigdi 27th June 2010 5:08 PM

There is a huge difference of the kind of projects that TCS does and that Capgemini does as Capgemini thinks in Euros and TCS does it in Rupees which is actually a fraction of what is a Euro.

The size of businesses in Capgemini is always more and bigger than that of from TCS. Of course TCS also plays in number of resources (it has an infinite apetite to put extra resources at client side)

Why I have choosen TCS and Capgemini. ? Because of grape-vine !!! (I know of companies that go home just having TCS in the list of interested parties). But, It Think of it as more generic terms Indian company vs European Company.

What would you suggest to a company who wants to have a piece of work done. would you buy cheap or buy high? Well I would say do a research of past projects for each company in the same area. (Check out their success rates esp time taken for execution and the budget allocated/revamped at a later date) . Its no mean task to handover your company's handiwork into foreign hands.

However being an Indian working for a European company. There is an element of culture clash. Penny Wise Pound Foolish. or is it the other way round "Mehnga roye Ek Baar,Sasta roye baar baar ".

Capgemini Bonus Day vs Blog Revolution

2010-03-30T18:57:00.011+05:30

For a lot of salaried people , Its little difficult to concentrate on work alone. for last 2 days of March. (31 March Financial Year End)

A lot of people get their bonuses tomorrow.However many know the actual amount only a day before.

It becomes more complex as many people think of Bonus as their rightful due. (After all Its part of CTC - Cost to Company)

People get disgruntled observing that their bonus amounts are different based on which part of the company they belong to. (Normally we expect bonus % to be same for individuals getting same ratings, but in Capgemini it is NOT so)

Blog Revolution

In India FSSBU not many people actually know what is Blog or How to use it or even less participate in it.

A simple blog post by Vijay Ajwani triggered a chain reaction. Concept of Blog, that hardly gets read. much less commented on got 110 comments in a day. Even though Blog allowed anonymous posts still many people used their original names. I still have to see posts in KM20 which is being pushed as a defacto standard for publishing information. Yammer/Twitter/Gmail etc are all blocked in FSSBU.

The Capgeminis adlines " Do what you want and not what you can " as well as "Together release your energies " both were turned upside down for their negative connotations.

Normally people do not use/have a social media to vent their opinion. But somehow they figured it via Capgemini Blog. I concur this is a BIG WIN.

Note :

* FSSBU was one of the hardest hit Business Unit when the recession struck so in a way descrepency in bonus is not something that is unexpected. Those who are in Capgemini can view the actual blog post and its ever growing comments here . (Login required)

* The intresting part (in my opinion) is the amount of comments that got posted for a blog post.

* The new joinees for Capgemini, Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware). check which BU you are going to join.

* All opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect in any way what my Employer Capgemini thinks.

Holi (Nahin) Hai

2010-03-01T18:48:00.005+05:30

Todays Holi and I never felt if it was there.

Yesterday we travelled back to Pune from Bhopal. (There are hardly any reservations available on other days). and I attended Office. (Yes Today in Capgemini FSSBU it was office)

Subhadra Kumari Chauhan -यह कदंब का पेड़ अगर मां होता जमना तीरे

2010-01-31T09:19:00.006+05:30

After a very very long time came across this Poem (kavita) and it makes more and more sense to me and my wife.

Its basically about Mother and her cub playing around a very old tree. (by the river)

A very crude sketch of my own imagination is attached.

यह कदंब का पेड़ अगर मां होता जमना तीरे

यह कदंब का पेड़ अगर मां होता जमना तीरे

मैं भी उस पर बैठ कन्‍हैया बनता धीरे धीरे

ले देती यदि मुझे तुम बांसुरी दो पैसे वाली

किसी तरह नीची हो जाती यह कदंब की डाली

तुम्‍हें नहीं कुछ कहता, पर मैं चुपके चुपके आता

उस नीची डाली से अम्‍मां ऊंचे पर चढ़ जाता

वहीं बैठ फिर बड़े मज़े से मैं बांसुरी बजाता

अम्‍मां-अम्‍मां कह बंसी के स्‍वरों में तुम्‍हें बुलाता

सुन मेरी बंसी मां, तुम कितना खुश हो जातीं

मुझे देखने काम छोड़कर, तुम बाहर तक आतीं

तुमको आती देख, बांसुरी रख मैं चुप हो जाता

एक बार मां कह, पत्‍तों में धीरे से छिप जाता

तुम हो चकित देखती, चारों ओर ना मुझको पातीं

व्‍या‍कुल सी हो तब, कदंब के नीचे तक आ जातीं

पत्‍तों का मरमर स्‍वर सुनकर,जब ऊपर आंख उठातीं

मुझे देख ऊपर डाली पर, कितनी घबरा जातीं

ग़ुस्‍सा होकर मुझे डांटतीं, कहतीं नीचे आ जा

पर जब मैं ना उतरता, हंसकर कहतीं मुन्‍ना राजा

नीचे उतरो मेरे भैया, तुम्‍हें मिठाई दूंगी

नये खिलौने-माखन-मिश्री-दूध-मलाई दूंगी

मैं हंसकर सबसे ऊपर की डाली पर चढ़ जाता

वहीं कहीं पत्‍तों में छिपकर, फिर बांसुरी बजाता

बुलाने पर भी जब मैं ना उतरकर आता

मां, तब मां का हृदय तुम्‍हारा बहुत विकल हो जाता

तुम आंचल फैलाकर अम्‍मां, वहीं पेड़ के नीचे

ईश्‍वर से विनती करतीं, बैठी आंखें मीचे

तुम्‍हें ध्‍यान में लगी देख मैं, धीरे धीरे आता

और तुम्‍हारे आंचल के नीचे छिप जाता

तुम घबराकर आंख खोलतीं, और मां खुश हो जातीं

इसी तरह खेला करते हम-तुम धीरे-धीरे

यह कदंब का पेड़ अगर मां होता जमना तीरे ।

-सुभद्राकुमारी चौहान

Games on Ubuntu

2010-01-30T20:34:00.003+05:30

Sometime back I had reverted back to Hardy Heron -Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.

Till now, Dhruva (my son) was content with watching movies and play some simple games on it.

We thought it could be a good idea to graduate him to more interesting games.

Esp Car Racing and I installed TORCS and I am able to run it with keyboard, also put Trigger over there. Recently I bought 2 joypads and now my issue is to make them work on ubuntu.

2 interesting links I found for Game enthusiasts on Ubuntu.

http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~vojtech/joystick/

http://icculus.org/lgfaq/

GO .... Vroooom VrooooooROOOOOOM ..

Back from Mumbai (Oracle Solution Architect Training by Ruben Spekle)

2010-01-24T18:07:00.010+05:30

Nigdi, Pune | January 24th 2010 | Time : 6:08 PM

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Past 1 week, I was attending a training from Capgemini University on being an Oracle Solution Architect.

There are things you know you know, there are things you know you do not know and then there are things that you DO NOT know that you DO NOT know .. this was training of the 3rd kind.

The Course is a fallout of Oracle making numerous acquisitions. Capgemini is thinking that there is a need for people who can effectively present a mix of all those "ACQUIRED R n D" technologies under Oracles Umbrella. I think capgemini has rightly identified this HUGE GAP which needs to be filled for at least some time to come.

Think of when you would suggest a Hyperion or Sleeping Cat or AcquaLogic to the Client just because that is the best fit, before Oracle acquired them.

My thinking Before the training

, I would say till Last 2 years ago BEA was Oracle's Competitor for APplication Servers but now its not. Hyperion for Financial reporting.. and Sieble for Analytics .. I guess If i HTTRACKED Oracle's website 4 years ago I would have got 100 reports why Oracles product are superior to each one of them. But Now the business is changed, they are Oracle. so

cough... cough ...

They are good for your business. !! Actually they are GREAT !!!!!!

Best of Breed you see.

My thinking After the training

As you might have already guessed SOA is the backbone of delivering all these technologies. We have webservices that enable the integration. After aquisition there are numerous Overlapping technologies and Oracle decides on which one to keep and which one to let go.

The Job #1 of Oracle Solution Architect is to keep their clients on the right track of technology. Hence, There are technologies that are

Continue
Converge
End of Life

The idea is know which technology is where and to consult client to keep them in CONTINUE or at least CONVERGE phase.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is just one problem

Capgemini is NOT ORACLE

It would have been great if the course only focussed on being a Solution Architect. instead of Oracle Solution Architect. I want to give my client BEST AVAILABLE SOLUTION. It may come from IBM, MICROSOFT or may be its Open Source.

My End Customer is the Client. He deserves the best solution available in Market because he has his hard earned money on the table. If myself being an Oracle Solution Architect I am not the right technology guy I have to step aside to let others come in.

Thanks to Ruben Spekle from NL, who conducted this course.

Internally, I feel that this course has flicked a switch which was OFF till now. I have begun to think of various stakeholders as to what are their individual needs.

Eg :

Oracle Alliance Manager
Owner
CIO
Marketing Manager

If this is what I think it is, It could be a start of a wonderful new journey, and I feel like a totally new Person. Eagerly, waiting for the Next Oppotunity to come when i can implement the know-how and Looking forward to working together with rest of the Solution Architects.

PS : Also met Anand Shetye from Oracle in the same training. We met after a very long time. (say 5-6 years)

Let me know in comments what you feel.

Jonathan Lewis.first impressions

2010-01-14T23:35:00.007+05:30

Got the opportunity to attend Jonathan Lewis webcast (Live) yesterday. He was talking about what he talks best (CBO in Oracle). Around 55 People attended the training mostly from India considering it was an AIOUG sponsored event.

Well I would say JL has been very good in his demo session spanning just 30 minutes.

His webcasts made things crystal clear. and tests are fairly reproducible (unlike I earlier thought). espesially after those magic settings that make most databases fairly standard. (DO NOT TRY THEM ON PRODUCTION).

Very Matter of fact presentation. easy example which hit deep and hit hard on brain. Simply Loved it. His pronunciation is very easy to understand, and he was very web-cautious the way i expect people of his calibre to be. AIOUG. Link is here (May or may not work as this was supposed to be NON -Free)

I asked him about his Practical Oracle 8i book as to when can i expect it to be a free download. No Clear answer (unless people stop buying it I can not ask for Copyright back from Addison Wesley- well fair enough but if I go ahead and order it on Amazon it will hurt chances for many others getting it free so very unclear guideline to what i should DO!!! ) . Surprise Surprise, like all wonderful People (read SUPER) he did hint me to James Morles website containg free pdf Scaling oracle 8i Which itself seems enlightening read and lot of FUN. The link is here (you will have to register for this free download ) I can assure you its worth registering for downloading this BOOK.

Something about First Appearences of JL

Sincerely feel that perhaps because JL does not actually worked for Oracle as an inside guy (Like Tom Kyte does) There is a lot of Maybe/Possibly in his CBO book that actually turned me off.

I feel like an idiot not reading CBO while it lay in my library shelf unattended since past 6 months. (Somehow ended up with 2 copies) The first impression I had after flipping through CBO book was "It seems important but unless I have read it cover to cover and try every example which may or may not reproduce on my env it will never be useful (I was wrong)" That would sounds SCARRRRRY to normal DBA. How many dbas would read an article thats first claims that may be only one of the million combinations of DBs env where it works like this and that after reading the BOOK. you will have an understanding of how to generally look for a solution. Most of us are all looking for Quick solutions. Wham... Baaam Thankyou maam. May be someday i will read the book on CBO but not today was my opinion

I have aleady finished first few chapters, and expect to take this book along to my Training in Mumbai for Oracle Solution Architect. Its a 5 day training, and a welcome breather from the normal office days. So some interesting learning times ahead.

Rules for running a Free Software/Open source business

2009-10-27T04:48:00.004+05:30

Rough principles and rules for running a Free Software/Open Source business.

A really interesting read http://zak.greant.com/hacking-business-models/

A few snaps

- The Employee works in distributed company and may work from anywhere.

- When employee is leaving he can buy out any Company equipment bought

under the hardware allowance. The price is
min(market-price, ‘initial-price’ * max(5 – years_old,0)/5)
(Ie, the price of the equipment is reduced by 1/5 each year)

- The salary should be competitive in the area where the employee is
located. The bonus plan is not depending on where employee is living.

I know only one single person from India who is working on Open Source Business model. (Ram from Veda Technology, Ameerpet Hyderabad. No, AFAIK He does not have a blog or online presence)

Reading all this felt like, in India people are more like hamsters powering the business silos.

Wordle magic

2009-10-10T20:38:00.005+05:30

The image is an outcome of putting my last post in http://www.wordle.com. (like curdle may be

Thanks to Rick Mans for sharing the link

Laptop Crash and HelpDesk - We need to format this laptop

2009-10-10T19:27:00.007+05:30

When my laptop crashed. Dutifully i presented my dead laptop to the helpdesk team. and they revert back saying

We need to FORMAT this laptop.

Ideally I keep my backups but for some weird reason I believed that it was possible to recover the laptop. and perhaps helpdesk was just trying to get rid of my request by doing a 2 hour format instead of say 20 hr recovery.

So here is what happens

Day 1 - Laptop crashes , I start working on office desktop which I normally used to do remote connection. Give laptop to helpdesk

Day 2 - We need to FORMAT this laptop (all this verbal and nothing in writing)

Morning XP installation CD taking me till C:\ but HECK .. the laptop is PGP encrypted so I can only see JUNK characters and this is precisely why the helpdesk cannot copy their ntldr.dll from CD to say #$@#%@#

Afternoon - They got the PGP decryption CD but that was taking a long time.

Evening - PGP not able to find its own directory

Night - Helpdesk team tells me your Hard disk has a bad sector We need to FORMAT this laptop (still verbal only)

Day 3 - I was told to work in second shift for next 4 days. Morning and afternoon lost.

Evening - Helpdesk tells me - PGP is hung and you say GOOD BYE to your data. Users are themselves required to keep backup of their important data. (Please note : usb drives were disabled in all office laptops). We can not do anything except FORMAT this laptop

(I am lucky to have a desktop as well as a laptop so my work mostly on putty and sqlplus is not getting hampered at all )

Day 4 - I decide to take things in my own hands. All the while helpdesk maintains, If I could decrypt this laptop whats the use of having PGP security. its a failure and so

IT CAN NOT be DONE

I check the website of PGP and find a good note. here http://tinyurl.com/yhdp73e

Afternoon: Ask them to give me CDs for XP reinstallation and PGP decryption. (Helpdesk says they can not give CDs as they do not give it). A lot of cajoling and pulling strings later they oblige.

5 min later : I am able to start the decryption process.

11:30 pm : decryption completes. I am able to see my data. decide to move to home and try out things there. I had whole weekend to do the easy stuff. :)

12 pm : Need admin password to cd to C:\windows. Pune folks wont give me administrator password as its not their policy. Called up Mumbai folks they are able to give passwords but none of them work. Perhaps as they use different set of passwords.

Called the pune folks again. telling them i am coming to office by now its 1 am in night.

1 :15 am yesternight : Helpdesk folks type in Administrator password.

(A little talking and a cup of tea afterwords I am told that the person whom I was working with has put his papers and that he is serving is NOTICE PERIOD). I am like wow!!! Lucky ME.

2:30 am yesternight : Repair of Windows XP completes successfully

3 am : I am home and crash in bed. But I am left with a bittersweet taste

- Why helpdesk did not help me recover the laptop data if it was recoverable.

- A person in Mumbai is able to share admin pwd but a person who is serving notice period is citing policies and procedures . Intresting difference. (perhaps It should be other way round)

- As soon as I can see the recovered data I am asked , Can I close the ticket NOW ?

Is helpdesk about helping people or closing maximum number of tickets in minimum amount of time. What about help of the 'helpdesk'

PS : I am configuring unison to backup my laptop data to Ubuntu box. Putty history log files, Chat transcripts, desktop will all be synced up apart from some important project folders.

Archived mail pst files will be synced.

keypass will be synced.

(I think this should be enough for insuring me for next time)

Ravana of Black Rock Desert - the burning man

2009-10-07T21:12:00.006+05:30

The two look so familier However one belongs to yearly event in Black Rock Desert called Burning Man and another (bottom) to Dussehra - or Ravan Dahan

India is truly incredible

2009-09-21T08:04:00.003+05:30

Its wonderful to be back in the holiday month of the year We have Dussehra , Diwali all lined up tidy to make a wonderful vacation back home. Best wishes for everyone. and live long and prosper.

For those who are close to me know that last month was quite hectic due to some personal emergencies (Now everything is well and settled ).

All this running around has made me quite religious. I try to spend some part of my time remembering the Almighty. I appreciate his presence in everyday life. ...

May be I am just getting old. but thats besides the point.

2009-08-15T23:46:00.003+05:30

The GO Live for Oracle HRMS 11.5.10.2 project has happened without a glitch on 10th Aug as per schedule.

The text that our manager Amit sent

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Successful deployment of the new HRMS Importance: High
Dear All,
As of 8.30 A.M. IST today, the new HRMS system went live as per schedule. This is the second of the system migration projects that has gone live this year. The new system is fully aligned with the Global Financial System (GFS) and has also met all its objectives.
A big thank you to the ISG HRMS team, HRMS- GFS team, KPIT team, iConnect team, ISG architecture team, RMG portal team, ISG testing team, MIS team & FS GBU IT team for their stupendous efforts and commitment during the entire project. Last but not the least, thank you to the ISG leadership team for their continued support during the project.
Kudos to the entire team in ensuring a successful and on-time deployment of the new HRMS.
Regards,

Amit Lavangu / CapgeminiFinancial Services Strategic Business Unit
ISG

----------------------------------------------------------------

It is a BIG achievement for everyone in the team including those from KPIT and of course Sweety Sinha and Sanjoy Mondal who helped me with my work of Oracle Apps DBA.

I know (know not believe) that teaching others is the best way to learn something. You get to look at the same subject with fresh eyes. which makes you better in many ways.

These days I am at home in Bhopal for my younger brother. Its a long long time since we were together like this. (10 years at least).

Take care and yes something i learnt.

Stay hungry stay happy. (or stop eating when you are half full and you will be happy).

2009-04-07T22:35:00.004+05:30

Cleaning up my computer hard disk.
Found a few sketches I did when i had fractured my leg.

Enjoy

The yellow one is inspired by J Swaminathans Earlier works (Bird, Tree series).

2009-01-29T22:26:00.003+05:30

Working as an Apps DBA again after 2 years of staying away from it. (I was working as Oracle DBA and as Oracle Application server Admin). Its mostly like revisiting comics read a hundred times before. Installation, Cloning, Post install steps, seed data, Patching ..everything is being revisited.

Thankfully that leaves a lot of time for me to read (esp at home) instead of trying to make something work. Kanbay 's library (now Capgemini) is an excellent source of reading materials. More on that may be some other time..

I was going through "The pragmatic programmer - from Journeyman to master" (Amazon link).
Must say it has kindled a spark in me to start programming afresh. (Being on DBA,Admin stream one usaually reuses old scripts and its mostly maintainance mode instead of development work).

Chapter 3 Basic Tools A craftsman starts his or her journey wth a basic set of good quality tools. .... These tools will be lovingly chosen, will be built to last, will perform specefic job with little overlap with other tools and will feel right in the budding woodworkers hands. .... Over time each will each will wear according to use, until the grip loooks like the mould of the woodworkers hands and the cutting surface alignes perfectly with the angle at which the tool is held. At this point, the tools become conduits from the craftsmans brain to the finished product. - they have become extensions of his or her hands. .... ... Tools amplify your talent. .. As you gain experience, and as you come acrosss special requirements you will add to this basic set. ... If you come across a situation where you feel your current tools can not cut it, make a note to look for something different or more powerful that would have helped. Let need driver your acquisitions. ..
Later the book eulogises the power of plain text and how vi and emacs rule the roost. (Also reminds me of the way wiki works ).

The book is choc-a-bloc with the experience and love with which software projects should be built. (Analogies are dot on mark eg the broken windows analogy and helicopter example for orthogonality)

A MUST read for anyone who loves softwares.

2008-12-31T23:50:00.000+05:30

New Year 2009 - A year for Peace and Harmony.

I had been thinking of this new year ... what all has been different.

Did I make new friends ... did I read new books ... YES I have ... this year has been very enjoyable on both these fronts. But more about this sometime later.

I do not want to wish bad for anyone. But I can not feel sorry for the TErrorist guys who recently attacked Taj and Oberoi in Mumbai.

As Clock ticks past to new year I hope the coming year will help annihilate the terrorist ideology. The whole next year I will keep thinking of what can be done to help this cause.

No big resolutions no flashy promises. Just simple Goodwill.

I want to live in a world of Harmony and Peace and Hope by next year I have done something to contribute to this end.

Thanks and wish you all a very happy new year

2008-12-29T23:02:00.000+05:30

Wait - charcoal and something else

Since past few weeks I am all alone at home. Lots of music .. lots of arranging my stuff from here to there and yes a little bit of cooking.

Meanwhile also got time to do some Charcoal work on a handmat paper. I titled it "Wait" referring to a homemaker waiting for her husband to come home. The whole larger than life shadow at the door hints at the change in her lifestyle after she got married. This is mainly true for most of the Indian families where the womenfolk become the hub. They stay at home and make sure that everyone/everything is at place.

PS :

The last time I did a serious work was 6 years ago. Strangely this also contained a girl "Girl in Pensive Mood". Now that makes me wonder is it a trend... or just something... by chance.

It was selected for All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Exhibition (AIFACS) Exhibition at Kala Parishad.

2008-12-28T22:10:00.000+05:30

Nandan Nilekani on TED

Nandan Nilekani of Infosys will be speaking in TED conferance. TED conf is something I really love. the whole concept it simply amazing.

Way to go India

Sunil

2008-12-28T11:16:00.000+05:30

Upgrading Ubuntu to 8.10

I was using the Hardy Heron till now on my Desktop till now. Its time to upgrade it to 8.10 now. Plan to install the same at my second home in Bhopal when i visit in second week of Jan 09.

Enjoy and wish you all a very happy new year.
Sunil

2008-12-26T00:11:00.000+05:30

My Website Hacked (Net4Domains Website Hosting sleazy security and service)

Today when i visited my website i was SHOCKED to find that my webs

ite was hacked.

Now the hacker mentions about Turkey and I do not remember any of my friends or foes living there. Anyway Like a good netizen I tried to complain about this on phone to Net4Domains office here in Pune my hosting provider, and (noone lifts phone its X Mas right!!!). Then I try to log a issue in my Net4Domains account and even that refuses to work.

"Database not available due to unspecified reasons"

If the hacker has done it once he/she can do it again. Unless the security breach is

fixed.

As of now I have backup of my website (being a DBA teaches you at least that) and have reverted it for now. Meanwhile if you see something silly please do ignore it.

PS :

1) Just now spoke to customer care who rudely tells me that I MUST have shar

ed my userid/password. It takes some time and lot of convincing before I make him realize that this is a shared server hosting and it must be affecting many others apart from just ME. Reluctantly he takes down my complaint. : ( Hope its not affecting many people.

2) Doing a google search on the hackers message takes me to an Urdu website selling Attars (Perfumes) now what on earth has that got to do with ME.... !!!!!

Update : 27 Dec 08

Net4Domains resets my FTP password on its own. and asks me to get the new password after login to their site.

They also tell me that whatever complaint I made 2 days ago "they are unable to find relevent details". (Pls note that this complaint was taken by their own staff on phone)

and yes when I call them on number mentioned no-one picks up the call and the voice tells me Voice mail box is full. Make whatever you can make of it. : |

2008-11-16T01:28:00.000+05:30

From ugly black caterpillar to a colourful butterfly

Recently got some bad news,

"The San Jose Mercury News reports that a 47 year old man named Jing Hua Wu, after being laid off from his job at a fabless digital radio semiconductor startup in Santa Clara called SiPort, came back to the office on Friday afternoon with a gun and killed three people. Sid Agrawal, the company’s CEO, and Brian Pugh, VP Operations, were killed along with one other as yet unidentified woman. Wu is still at large according to the latest reports."

There are two things that strike me.

1) Sid Agrawal. that strikes me as an Indian name. (Must have been Siddharth).
2) I wonder if this was only the idiosyncracy of the employee who gunned down three people.

I feel really sad for the families of these 3 people.

Already people are insecure with the current meltdown that we are witnessing in economies around the world. Most of the people who invested in stocks are left with less than half of their net worth. Add to it job loss and insecurity and you have an explosive situation.

After all the good times/aftereffects of GATT, WTO, WWW, Liberalisation We seem to be witnessing their dark side.
I still feel all those decisions were right ( opening up economies, getting the best people from anywhere to do the job at lowest cost. All this makes sense ). But this shift asks for a lot of 'aahuti' and we should keep our senses intact. unlike the gunman in question. These are tough times for everybody, employee as well as the employer.

POST SCRIPT ::: (from managing radical change - Sumantra Ghosal, Gita Priamal and Christopher Bartlett)
'From a caterpillar to a butterfly' sounds and feels so good. From an ugly black caterpillar to a bright colourful butterfly - the symbol of fantasy of love of good cheer! But imagine what is happening to the caterpillar as it goes through that metamorphosis. First it goes blind then its arms and legs fall off Finally its body splits open to allow the beautiful wings to emerge think of the fear and pain it is going through. A similar kind of transformation is being witnessed around the world. and I am sure it will emerge to be a better place that it is NOW.

2008-10-10T17:32:00.000+05:30

Dont expect a V turn in economy.

Intresting info here

2008-10-04T15:39:00.008+05:30

Buying Books
Old selling model has a lot to learn from Clicks model of Amazon. I received my another copy of "Joy of Cooking 75th edition" at my Bhopal Residence. (33 $ including shipping ). The first one I gifted to my Sister who is a wonderful cook.

I have been searching for this book since past 2 year in bookstores and in Indiatimes website. This list includes Walden, Crossword and some of the oldest prestigious names in Book Sellers in Hyderabad. Some of these bookstores promised me to get this book for me next time I am there. They even noted down my mobile number. I offered them an advance which they promptly refused. Also They did not got this book for me niether did they call me even to tell me that they were not able to procure it for me. Why dont these bookstores grow up.

Lately i got to know even Tom Kyte's Expert One on One is not available in Pune Markets. I already have my copy since its Wrox edition was released. Now a days it comes from Apress.

Such a SHAME!!! and a HUGE waste of my time looking for the book in the bookstores. I find my time better spent searching for books in Amazon for HardCopy or in Books24x7 for online reading. (Capgemini has a tieup with SumTotal which provides this service for all the Capgemini employees).

What i bought from BookStores

However I was able to find the book "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish" by Rashmi Bansal. She has a fabulous blog- Youth Curry and as far as i can tell the book is also worth it. ANother book i purchased from store was "The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch". I have thoroughly enjoyed and also taught my niece the ALICE software which is Much much much better version of BLOCKS she was using earlier in her school. these two and a kiddeez book (you know the kind where we have Animals, Alphabets,Fruits,Home objects) to teach my son some language. (FYI He picked the books himself in crossword He is 2.5 years noisey brat )
All this I bought with my CROSSWORD coupan as I got awarded the Quarterly Best performer for FSSBU. (The award was handed over by Bill Schreiner -VP Capgemini) .

2008-09-29T17:54:00.000+05:30

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish The book

The book is released. Rashmi Bansal herself an IIMA graduate. and co-founder and editor of JAM (Just Another Mag)
has released a book on entrepreneurship.

The inspiring stories of 25 IIM Ahmedabad graduates who chose to tread a path of their own making. Every year during placement companies we used to see news of a few of them refusing for the placement assistance and starting their own startup.

I must say this is should be a worthy read. Here is the link http://www.stayhungrybook.com/

Looking forward to buy it in paper. (I love trees, but there is no other option yet!!)

Thanks Rashmi, your Youth Curry blog is always a treat. (and yes you look great :))

2008-09-27T01:40:00.000+05:30

NASSCOM creates a Skills Repository for background checks
and otherwise

Just a month ago, I was being bothered about my BGC (background check) Context being I was working in GE and they were shifting their premises from iLabs to Satyam. I got the final paper just in nick of time from our HR, but it was after a lot of following up with my managers and HR. Royal waste of everybodys time.

I was happy when heard about NASSCOM taking some measures to make a single repository of all the software professionals. (Also there have been quite lot of fake resumes and fake experiences circulating around. Especially in Hyderabad).

The link is https://nationalskillsregistry.com/
A few points
1) You have to fill a long form. (with all details of past employment etc will take you 30 min or more depending on your years of experience)
2) This gets you a userid/pwd there is also a transaction password - Not sure why ??
3) They give an acknowledgement number through which you print out a form and pay at Point of Service.
4) You need to shell out 337 Rs to get this done.
5) This includes your biometric details too - (Yay!!! we are the good guys remember)

Madhusudan, A friend from wipro told that they got it done from company itself. (A Good thing)
he also told that in future all consultancies will be digging their nose in this skills repository. (Do you think its bad news for Monster and Naukri???)

It seems to be a silver bullet to stop the time wastage next time onwards, makes sense to get registered.

For those who wantto dig deeper we have this description here

PS : Thanks to Som Mittal for this much neeeded initiative. Dont know why but suddenly remembered Dewang Mehta. If he was around to see. He would have been happy. God bless his soul.

2008-09-25T12:02:00.000+05:30

QuillPad - for Hindi Typing.

If you are fed up of writing in English and trying to get things in Hindi Devnagri or may be malayalam .. or whatever .. you might want to consider looking at Quillpad.

Very accurate. and intuitive .. (better than Google's). Look here for the comparison with the rest

Thanks Quillpad for being there.

Sunil

2008-09-11T01:39:00.000+05:30

inbox zero
Good vedio more like GTD in here

2008-09-07T23:33:00.000+05:30

Trying OpenSolaris Live CD and ZFS

Few months ago I had attended an OpenSolaris intro meet conducted by NIIT here in Hyderabad.
Last week the Live CD arrived by post.

I am trying that on my ubuntu box as well as my DELL laptop and a macbook ..

It seems

1) can not detect usb motherboard /mouse
2) can not connect to wifi (although its able to detect the wifi name and asks for password)
3) A real dampner was the login console which hogged even after booting for a long time. I searched on net only to find that I need to wait for a Looooong time (3-5 min ) before the GUI kicks in.(not that i am a big fan of GUI)

Anyway the reason i came to OpenSolaris was the ZFS .. I yet have to see what promises it holds. As long as the basics are in place I would be a happy guy.

Here are some good links
http://blogs.sun.com/jsavit/entry/zones_in_opensolaris_livecd_inside
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/site-map/

2008-09-07T01:20:00.000+05:30

Organizing my Address Book (and keeping it updated)

Some KuchiiKooo stuff here .. I hope you sympathize with me... Having over 1092 peoples details ... I am having a hard time consolidating all my friends and colleagues addresses till now..

All these years i have been majorly in Hyderabad ... from Japan... from Pune .. from Hyderabad ... from Delhi from Indore ... from Bhopal. Its just 6 places till now, still the list of address books is HUGE and its really difficult to manage. (I can not rely on my address book I need to rely on his/her email address to verify where the person is right now )

For eg: Suppose if someone whom you met in BHopal came to Hyderabad got married and is now living in BHatinda ... How do you keep track of his kids names their DoBs wifes name his marriage anniversary .. and what not apart from just his present Address... company he is working for and phone number. It would be rude to ask all the time and more often than not I just miss wishing my friends on their birthdays or marriage anniversaries.

I really envy people who have a knack of remembering these details in their head (Like my dear friend Ambikesh Pagare). Wonder if this can be fed into some kinda computer program in a better organized way.

- (I was looking at BatchBook.com but Do not want to get locked into proprietory website/software at all also there is a limit on number of contacts you can add there Whick is a Yucky thing )

- Outlook Sucks at this organization level.

Trying Evolution .. but not sure how to group all these people who are just moving around from one place to another like hummingbird on steroids.

How to best organize address books and also to keep them updated. How do you guys do it.

2008-09-03T12:45:00.000+05:30

GAAP no more (IFRS is in place)

It seems Accounting practices need as much of a standardization as the Technical standards. and Here is a long pending move.

Here is the home page for International Accounting standards board. I think it might make sense to go over their 2008 manual due to come out soon.

David Haimes has written here about the implications for the Oracle Financials. A must read for Techno Functional Consultants.

2008-08-29T09:17:00.000+05:30

Being Dad for a two year old

Having a soon to be 2 year old boy is like having a tornado in home. I really needed help with the stuff and these are some of the good links i found.

Technology for toddlers
Potty training
Mother of all parenting sites

I was also quite impressed by the disscussion forums at amazon for Parenting.

Believe me .. having a kid changes life for a Father as much as it changes it for the Mother.

As somewhere in net i found
A two year olds is old enough to assert his/her individuality and yet is yet having very limited vocabulary to express what he wants or understand what you are saying.

Enjoy a european ad very well conceived :)

2008-08-27T10:42:00.000+05:30

Better late than never - (The LAST lecture)Really Achieving your childhood dreams

The you tube vedio is a little long (15 min over an hour) But worth every millisecond I spent watching it today morning. Sincere Advice : Watch it when you are free and in one GO, do not skip anything

Desc of vedio:
"Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture."

2008-08-18T21:31:00.000+05:30

Null object pattern

How many times we need to check if the database connection is properly establised, or things to do when some customer,entry is non existent.

JD miller from shadetreedeveloper pointed to a great article on Null Object pattern on wikipedia
Check it here

2008-04-23T13:09:00.000+05:30

YAAWWWN.....

Been a long sleep since republic day(26th Jan 08) YYYYawwwnnnn
What a wonderful time off. dreams of family members friends and all beautiful memories engulfing me ..

(Painting is by Henri Rousseau. (French, 1844-1910). The Sleeping Gypsy. 1897. Oil on canvas, 51" x 6' 7")
(writeup ; As a musician, the gypsy in this painting is an artist; as a traveler, he has no clear social place. Lost in the self-absorption that is deep, dreaming sleep, he is dangerously vulnerable—yet the lion is calmed and entranced.

The Sleeping Gypsy is formally exacting—its contours precise, its color crystalline, its lines, surfaces, and accents carefully rhymed. Rousseau plays delicately with light on the lion's body. A letter of his describes the painting's subject: "A wandering Negress, a mandolin player, lies with her jar beside her (a vase with drinking water), overcome by fatigue in a deep sleep. A lion chances to pass by, picks up his scent yet does not devour him. There is a moonlight effect, very poetic. The scene is set in a completely arid desert. The gypsy is dressed in oriental costume.")

2008-01-26T17:15:00.000+05:30

Happy Republic day to India.

Only yesterday i was reading a blog post by Joi Ito (here is the link ) Basically He talks about Japans future but has sneaked an intresting revelation about India too

The slide contains the world GDP of various countries in 2004 and projects for 2050
the indias GDP in 2004 was 2.4% and in 2050 if things go well can be 15.8%. A lot of it come as value propositions shift from countries like USA , Japan etc. I do not have anything against these contries but expecting to see India in a better place and that too in my own lifetime. (75 years old man) Hope to do a small contribution for the cause of my motherland by then.

Face reading.. blog

2008-01-19T11:14:00.001+05:30

Found this intresting site about reading peoples faces ..

http://thefaceoftheweek.blogspot.com/

its more complex than reading the body language. :)

2008-01-01T02:01:00.000+05:30

Last few days i had been enjoying with my son. He has not yet started to walk .. but definitely was quite happy driving. This all from a fun place called Mount Opera that is around 25 km from home.

Happy new year folks, hope you are with your families and enjoying being together. May you get all you deserve and a lot more.
(Update: last year i was alone in Japan and awaiting news for my yet to be born son check out some of my old doodles)

Now where did i kept a copy of my last years resolutions..

2007-12-23T15:11:00.000+05:30

Software Testing using Children -

A room full of 8 -yr olds to do the testing now that is an intresting concept.
and why not.
Look here for full story

BLACKOUT ...

2007-12-20T13:33:00.001+05:30

These days i am pretty busy doing nothing at all.

YAAAWWWWNNNNNNN !!!!

Blogged with Flock

2007-10-30T08:34:00.000+05:30

Ubuntu gutsy gibbon up and running at home and i Luuuvvv it

This has been pending since past so many months and finally last weekend it happened.
whatever you have been hearing about ubuntu is true.

Actually i expected problm with setting up my 19 inch moniter I am glad that it autodetected the 1440x 900 resolution thats optimal for this LG flatron. (windows xp as well as 2000 had not given me this option.)

Everything is up and running .. and i am not even missing windows. Actually i like myself to stay with the gutsy gibbon.

Hmmm... now time to get that new leopard that Apple released. recently.

2007-10-23T09:00:00.000+05:30

First car - Santro xing

It had been some time since i was thinking of buying either a wagonR or a Santro Xing.
Finally settled down with Santro Xing. (Hyundai group)

One can say it was more in moood with the festivities going around. as Dussehra is one of the most celebrated festivals in Down south. (South India) even more than Diwali.

Sister purchased a Zen Estillo and brother in law got himself a wagonR (both from Maruti Suzuki)

I asked the sales man Shiva from Talwar Mobiles Pvt Ltd at Banjara Hilla, in a day he had to deliver 150 vehicles, Next day 50 more. People go nuts in festival season. :)

2007-09-27T21:32:00.000+05:30

Bangalore Bugle in Hyderabad

2 years Ago Hyderabad was not having the same issues with Traffic Jams and ill concieved constructions ..
and now i have observed people getting used up in 3 hour traffic Jams that to for coming to office and going back ..

No wonder i think its good for me to choose a US shift that starts from 2 pm and stays till 10 pm At the very least i can avoid the rush hour at 9 am and 5 pm.

Only yesterday saw a news article mentioning the infrastructure issues that are plagueing Hyderabad and IT Head Honchos blowing the Bangalore Bugle on Hyderabad..

Just 5 min ago a Friend of Mine Manish Sharma who is presently in NOIDA told me about the latest developments in one of the few Satellight towns (Indore) where Software companies might want to shift to make offices. I have not visited Indore since past 6 Years and definately a lot of names of roads etc were changed when he mentioned where the CRYSTAL IT park Space in Indore. The best part was when he asked me to Check it out on WiKiMAPIA
and even cared to drop me a URL

Now thats what i call Happening ... cuz this 8 stories high IT park is adjacent to the University where I studied IIPS, DAVV (Devi Ahilya University). I did my Mech Engg from SGSITS (DAVV).

I know a lot of developments that are going on in a lot of satellight cities. It is good for a lot of people who want to be closer to their home instead of living 2 days travel away from their town.

2007-09-26T17:45:00.000+05:30

SAP, Oracle strategies

A very intresting Article comparing the 2 stalwarts of ERP over here

2007-09-24T17:04:00.000+05:30

Space Management

Been put into a new project Pure DBA stuff nothing fancy. At least its better to be Billable than sit on the bench.

The Dollar weakinng against Rs is hitting the Industry margins, makes every non billable employee a liability. Just a few billable cents to add to the kitty.

Will try to keep posted about the range of challenges the foremost of which seems to be

Managing the space in the Server.

Let me know in comments what you think are effective space management stratgies from Oracle DBA point of view.

2007-09-20T20:48:00.000+05:30

Starting at the right foot

Have finalized a decent 3BHK (3 bedroom hall kitchen).
Now one will be transformed to a Study Room and another one into a Studio for my Father for times he comes over to visit us.

Need to setup internet broadband too .. might be busy for next week or so ..

Thankfully wifes parents are just a hand shot away. (You may accuse of me being a Ghar Jamai) But to tell the fact i feel its important to have elders around when you have a 8 month old baby to take care of. After all its our first experience. There is mighty much to learn being parents and all. :D

Feels so good to be back. Office i see a lot of changes becuase of Capgemini taking over and it feels as if the confusion is still there after 1 year. All the while i had been in Japan and was thinking that things will get sorted out by now. But i think it has taken more time and it definately shows on peoples faces and the confusion about the processes and policies.

For eg even though i am working on 2-pm to 10 pm i still do not get company arrangement for travelling back and forth from office or to talk about the after office hours allowances. Noone can answer why or why not i do not have these things.
Anyway .. my job is to work and 2-10 suites me fine too especially looking at the office hour rush which is a maddening.

In the morning i am going to attend a few classes for functional 11i to better package my experience. and i have really found a good mentor. Will try to post some pics when i get time.

2007-08-30T23:34:00.000+05:30

Very Soon i will be joining office in Hyderabad. Lazy afternoons are over. Its back to WORK and PLAY ...

Ta Ra .. Rum .. Pum pum..

feels good to be back in Action.

Oct - Nov is the next time .. i need to be with family.

2007-08-12T08:34:00.000+05:30

GoodBye Japan

View Album

Get your own

My replacement came last week to Japan ..

Thanks to the preplanned Knowledge Transfer (KT) sessions i had been having with him on telephone that he was able to pick all those things I had been doing in past 1 year or so.

Roger Sander's idea of doing documentation along with was an immense help. (The key in understanding this idea is knowing what information WILL look like after say 7-8 months when the project is over. Keeping that in mind you prepare a template design and keep feeding this puppy till it becomes a BULLDOG of a document) I am quite proud of my "System Maintainance doc" and "Monitoring doc"

System Maintainance doc has everything from patching servers to doing date change on the 5 servers and visionPlus dumps, conection checking with NBSM and a lot of other things too around 64+ pages overall.

Monitoring doc has every error that i encountered in last 1 year on production servers , Resolution of these errors along with metalink note ids, it contains a running list of number of users concurrently using the system every day at peak office time, and a server history mentioning patches which were applied on the server and when they were applied.

I must say i am proud of my work i have done here, It was a pleasent experience when Samuel Tan san who was heading this project asked me to join him in Dubai for his new opportunity. (Somehow that guy reminds me of Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman" a rough tough military kind) I have a lot of respect for the Japanese people and their ways of working have somehow brushed inside me too. Something that will become a part of rest of my life.

For now its time to say goodbye to Japan. Not sure if i will be coming here again. As for now .. i will most probably be on bench in Hyd Capgemini office. I have a lot of things to do mostly on family front. (The foremost being staying with my new born son whom i have not met since past 7 months) Preeti is a very understanding and supportive wife. I love her so much.

2007-07-21T18:58:00.000+05:30

Surviving Japan

Well there have been several instances of things i wish i knew on day 1 I landed on Narita Airport.

I am trying to create a wiki page for new Comers to Japan here

http://onelife.wikidot.com/japan

At present it has information relevent to People who are around me that is CapGemini/Kanbay folks who work with me at Meguro office. But i hope it serves some useful purpose for others too.

Anon access is enabled for this wiki page so if you want to add something you will not need to create a loginid. Hope we are able to do some decent compilation here.

2007-07-21T18:30:00.000+05:30

Ramayan -retold.

I had been looking at the project for the Ramayan story retold by some excellent artists and illustrators at VirginComics

and the result is awesome.
I am really loooking forward for the day i get hold of these comics. the brush strokes and the colour combinations and the direction of shots everything is so perfect.

This is KICK ASS stuff for any supercomics ever told before.

The slideshow link is here

2007-07-16T20:06:00.000+05:30

Bhopali Urdu/Bhopali Bakar

(Got this post from a mail chain .. and could not resist sharing it on my Blog being a Bhopal localite myself )

Bhopali, also known as Bhopali Bakar or Bhopali Urdu, is a vernacular form of Hindustani language spoken primarily in Bhopal , India . (that is My Bhopal) On the streets of Bhopal, people from every part of Bhopal/Sukhi Sewaniya/Ghoda Nikkas add to the already messed up vocabulary of Bhopali. The language emerged from the old part of the city, and is mainly spoken by the residents there, although the residents of the new city also acknowledge it.

Bhopali is more influenced by the paan eating habits of Bhopali (residents) and sounds like very crude version of Hindi. Words have been polished to make them sound very smooth. For e.g., words ending with '-aan', such as pahalwaan, khan etc., are spoken with nasal accent. Similarily, the word raha, used in conjunction with verbs, is spoken as riya. E.g. kar riya hai, aa riya hai, ja raiya hai, etc. On the other hand, some words are extended than their normal use. The word hai is sometimes spoken as hega.

The language is spoken in a lyrical way which gives it a very comical intonation.

Bhopal is famous for four things "Parda/Zarda/Garda/Naamarda". The first of the four words 'Parda' is for symbolizing the old tradition of having Burqa clad ladies which you'll come across in scores on the streets of Bhopal.

The second 'Zarda' symbolizes yet another tradition of chewing Tobacco with 'Paan', which is in vogue till today. You can still find pan stalls all over the city in scores. The third 'Garda' is for the dusty roads one came across in the old days of yore. 'Naamarda' refers to the eunuchs reciding in the older areas of the city, specifically Itwaara, Somwara and Mangalwara. They dance at various occasions such as marriage and birth of a child, and demand for money in return of the 'favour'.

A famous dish of Bhopal is "Bun Kabab" ( along with namak waali chai ). Easily available on the streets of old city, these small eateries are a meeting point for many.

Among other favorite dishes is "kamar bhai ka paya soup & bade ki biryaan" found at "Chatori galli"

Examples

Aapki gaadi reverse phaink rahi heigi. Point shaart hega. Lapak kaisi aa rahi hegi? Chakka dag riya hae. Piston mein pilay haega. Point shat ho riya hai.
Konsa aayal? 2t ya lokal ?
Amma khan yeh Jawaharlal school toh Bhopal ka sabsey behtarin school hega ..!!
Ustaad rokke challnaa, ek ladies aa ri hegi! (in minibus/tempo)
Bhot lehra riya hega.
Miya kallaat (kal-raat) se bhot STD (acidity) ho ri hegi pet mein!
Lapak maal hai be -girl is so beautiful.
Ko Khan, Kaise? - How are you?
Do lapaad lagaunga rakh ke, sar mein bhannaati aa jaayegi!
Indoor Indoor Indoor - Bus conductor calling out for passengers for Indore
Ama aapki gaadi to paidal ho gayi - Engine is seized
chakachak/zhakaas - Shining clothes
Places: Birla Mandir, Lake View, Van Vihar, Tekri, 10 no., Phoota makbara, Ghoda nikkas, Taj-ul-Masaajid, Dhai Seedi ki Masjid, Kheoni Sanctuary, Islam Nagar, Purana Kila, Jama Masjid, Moti Masjid, Shaukat Mahal, Gohar Mahal, Sadar amal pura, Chhola road, Baapu ki kutia, Jinsi chouraha, Manav sanghralay, Kerwa Dam, BHEL - parks, Chuna Bhatti, teela jamalpura, pul bogda, somwaara, mangalwaara & most appreciable Nutan College,
Thulla, Thol (policeman)
Tadi or GT - Mass bunking
AAN DO!!!' - helper yelling while giving driver parking instructions.
Bhai, lounda bhot tez chalta hai.. isko to khopche mein lekar saltana padega.
Madrasi - Anyone from South India. Bhopal ke neechay sab madras hai (geographically)
gadi andar "peet" do - chipka ke lagaoo (at parking)

Bhat - actually bhat-suar. The old fashioned rickshaw making noise like "bhat bhat bhat". (with 3 tyres, 1 in front and 2 rear, front wheel generates power.)
Jinsee chouraah, panchsheel - Mithun Wannnabees'
ek ulte haath ki doonga, muh ghoom jaayega, pata bhi nahin chalega aa riya hai ki jaa riya hai (I will slap u so hard with my left hand, your head will tilt, nobody will be able to tell, if you are coming or going)
lapak lo lapak lo (chai jaldi se utha lo.........)
are madam bachon ko godh mein bitha lo (to manke place in mini bus)
Aajaao bashten bashten bashten (Bus stand)
Second Panch Cheh Saat Dus Gyarah Gyarah Sau. Minibus conductor reciting the route of the bus.
Rokk Kayyy. Minibus conductor asking the Driver to stop to pickup or drop off passengers.
Najaakat to dekh launde ki.

Typical Startup politicians ad campaign

Arif Akeel - Standard banner: "Apke apney jujharoo aavam karmath neta manneeyey sri arif akeel urf guttu bhai ko bhaari maton se vijaiyee banayein. Chunaav chinha - Haath ka panja, Veeneet pappu, mohan, aantu, bantu aur hasan bhai"

More Examples From the Streets of Bhopal:

Arey Khaan Mamoooo ( To call anyone )
Arey Khaan Ek maghai banana bina supari - baba 160 maar ke (Pan Order at Banarsi Paan Bhandaar)
aur khaan Pathaan ( To greet someone)
ken lagey (He said)

Schools in BHOPAL Vikram, CAMPION, Jawahar, All Saints, k.v 1, St. Josephs Co ED, St. Josephs Convent, Carmel Convent, Model, Raman, Nalanda, Bal Bhawan, Arera Convent, St. Xavier's

in Bhopali: Vikram, Kempiyan, Jawaar, Aal Saynt, KV number one, Sen Josap Co ed, Sen Josap Kaanvent, Kaarmal Kaanvent, Maadal, Raman, Nalanda, Baal Bhavan, Arera Kaanvent, Sen Jhayviyar!

etc etc etc etc etc

Some headspinners

How does a Bhopali calls Samosa? - Famofa ( cos hes chewing paan while asking for samosa )
A friend told me about his Tution in this way - Ama Khan.....me wo Jacoffer ke hiyan tution ko jaa riya hoon.....he meant "Jacob Sir"
An average Bhopali auto driver spells out abuses at the rate of 15-20 per min, each abuse at least 4-5 words long
Why do parrots in Bhopal fly with one wing only? - Guess
Where would you find the greatest number of look alikes of Dhonis, Mithuns and Govindas in the world? - Near Bada Talaab in Bhopal
Jawaharlal nehru's statue in TT Nagar is facing opposite to city so he has to stand in a very unique position, Guess why ?
Board office ka addres??? Go to MP Nagar square Ambedkar statue will tell you.
shawar ali model cum actor is in relation to each bhopali (mere chaca ka ladka hai,mere mamu hain, mere mamu ka ladka hai n many more........)

Most Overheard Phrases

Kon Khan Kan Ja Riye Ho!!(where r u going?)
Haan Khan Pathan Khairiyat!!! (Asking the person if he is alright)
Ko Khaa Ama Khaa!!Kaisey?
Abe je ka kar riya hai? Chariya gaya ka? -What are you doing?Are you mad?
dus geeyarah baarah naakaooou - The common call from the conductors of the numerous Mini buses in Bhopal, calling for passengers to various bus stops in Bhopal.
madam bacchey ko gode mein bithaiye - If a lady tries to get a seat for her Infant in the Mini bus the conductor would 'politely' ask her to carry the child in her lap.
Taap an taoun (Top-n-town) - The very famous joint of get together in the uptown New Market area of Bhopal.
kalmein kaise beh rahi hai tumhari
zero bate sannata
chachaooooo ekdum bhannaat lag riya hega
(........name of a person)Bhai Ko- (short for ......... bhai ko salaam)
Arey pehelwaan
Akhaan sab kismat ki luck hai
iscooter thodi silo (slow) chalana
rawangee daal lo
kyon jhoom riya hega be
kanney kat gaye ( in reference to kite flying )
sar par de riya hega mila mila ke
kishore taalkeez, lily taalkeez, rangmehel
subhaash iskool ( subhash school ) , maadel iskool (model school)
gaadi pinna dee ( accelerated his bike )

repit jaaando

lept (left) gali mein lele saamne thulla khada hega!
- (desh) fati to harkoyi bola ---------- hajmola hajmola
abe yar KLPD ho gayi
Har kittay dey reya hai( simply bluffing)
Aur khaan miyan kaise ho
Kaat lo kaat lo -to overtake

2007-07-10T19:08:00.001+05:30

2007-06-26T01:51:00.000+05:30

Intresting story... Coffee Cups

found here
A very strong concept.... explained in a neat way

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.

Savour the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

2007-06-14T19:30:00.000+05:30

Orafaq having wiki, blogs

Some very intresting and creative posts in orafaq blogs
Posts are very neat
I am sure this is a space to watch out for ..

Some wiki are here .. (a very good step in right direction).

One concern i felt using wiki pages in a wikidot site, wiki seem to be a TOP down approach rather then a Bottom up.

In such a case someone has to decide when we need a new wiki page.. and bifurcate the information in 2 parts instead of switching back and forth. in the whole article making it very light readable.

One interesting thing about the blog posts in Orafaq is..
they do not use the work "BLOG" in the URL which means i should be able to read them in Office. ( silly point but true... same for any URLs with word "Mail" in them So no gmail no yahoo mail .. nothing.). Now i realize why Kanbays mailing system is accessible via
http://wm.kanbay.com as well as http://webmail.kanbay.com

2007-06-14T15:30:00.000+05:30

Intresting concept

you ask to put down 5-6 characteristics from a list that define your personality
and ask friends to do so

Eventually you get a demography of what you look to others and what you think you actually are ..
intresting concept

Arena

(known to self and others)

intelligent, knowledgeable, organised, self-conscious

Blind Spot

(known only to others)

caring, complex, confident, dignified, idealistic, independent, modest, quiet, searching, sentimental, trustworthy

Façade

(known only to self)

proud, reflective

Unknown

(known to nobody)

able, accepting, adaptable, bold, brave, calm, cheerful, clever, dependable, energetic, extroverted, friendly, giving, happy, helpful, ingenious, introverted, kind, logical, loving, mature, nervous, observant, patient, powerful, relaxed, religious, responsive, self-assertive, sensible, shy, silly, spontaneous, sympathetic, tense, warm, wise, witty

Dominant Traits

66% of people think that Sunil123 is complex
66% of people agree that Sunil123 is knowledgeable

All Percentages

able (0%) accepting (0%) adaptable (0%) bold (0%) brave (0%) calm (0%) caring (33%) cheerful (0%) clever (0%) complex (66%) confident (33%) dependable (0%) dignified (33%) energetic (0%) extroverted (0%) friendly (0%) giving (0%) happy (0%) helpful (0%) idealistic (33%) independent (33%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (33%) introverted (0%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (66%) logical (0%) loving (0%) mature (0%) modest (33%) nervous (0%) observant (0%) organised (33%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (33%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (33%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (33%) sensible (0%) sentimental (33%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (33%) warm (0%) wise (0%) witty (0%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 14.6.2007, using data from 3 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view Sunil123's full data.

2007-06-10T20:27:00.000+05:30

Watching ants.

I really am quite free these days ... in fact .. i am begining to enjoy a lot of things .. i used to do when i was a kid. One of those things was watching ants .. the recent rains in Gotanda have forced literally thousands of them to shift homes. ..

It always amazes me looking the discipline and steadfastness of these little creatures. straight lines ... and very organized.

Here is a sketch of me .. admiring them .. walk up the wall.

:) Hope you have fun.

2007-05-11T22:25:00.000+05:30

Zero mails in Inbox...

Thanks to GTD..magic

2007-04-22T21:57:00.000+05:30

Just flirting with a Japanese brush pen.

2007-04-19T18:10:00.000+05:30

Many people might not be aware of my artistic family background.
I thought of using scrapblog for making a makeshift website for my Sister

Attached below is a work in progress.

2007-03-17T22:00:00.000+05:30

Datacenters - change of viewpoint

I remember my early years sitting in freezing cold datacenters whole night solving DB crashes and Oracle Application server installations (now Oracle AS is a breeeze).

was glancing at the

Gartners report on IT 07 trends and beyond

It struck me ..

.. By 2008, nearly 50% of data centers worldwide will lack the necessary power and cooling capacity to support high-density equipment. With higher densities of processors proliferating, problems in this area continue to grow. Although the power and cooling challenge of high-density computer equipment will persist in the short term, a convergence of innovative technologies will begin to mitigate the problem by 2010.
..

Now that means time has really come for the Project Black Box from SUN microsystems

imaging me sitting in those shipping containers to solve problems.. ridiculous. :D

2007-03-17T20:11:00.000+05:30

VOKAY!!!
i did go to India and the time really flew ... ...

Me and my son who is by now 2 months old all this time were together were only intrested in being well fed and sleep.

Anyway .. i am back in Japan and guess what ??? Living in Roppongi .. (an active night club area). Man, if only i was into alcuuhol and babes this could have been an unforgettable time..
.... But no NO NO.... like a good husband I am having bread, boiled eggs, salad and strawberry milk for my dinner. Thanks to Indian shop that closed at 10 30 pm and no utensils to cook my own food.

Regarding work 4 , 5 Env that these Folks here wanted me to do is almost finished .. Just some websphere clustering is still left which should get finished by next week anyway. and then .. there should be peace for some time. Lets see what can i make out of all that.

Adding a pic of me taken in this apartment at ForeCity Roppongi.

2007-01-14T10:26:00.000+05:30

WHY I cant think clearly!!

Life is crazy ... my heart and mind are not together. and i just wanna fly back home.
Hell .. this is making me mad.

I am attaching a few more of my doodlings

(This one is at the Maya Restaurant here in Meguro,Japan where i get some taste of Indian Food -Its actually a Nepali-Indian restaurant)

I was really surprised to see staircase in a park. It felt pleasently awkward.
(It says - "Who build stairs in the part, Actually Stairs came first park happened later" )

(This one above at a Coffee-Burger shop, Japan has a really great coffee culture. I have only heard about the tea parties!!! )

(Ebisu, Japan is famous for its beer Yebisu, Sopparo beer station is just walking distance away -Too bad i dont drink. At least i can enjoy the goblet)
I know I know its nota beer Mug.. but a wine glass looks better.

ALas .. 1 month to go .. home...

2007-01-10T06:37:00.000+05:30

Some Good news..

Preeti and myself have been blessed with a baby boy. yesterday evening around 4 :45 PM India time.

I am in Japan and Terribly miss the "Brand New Baby". Hopefully i will be able to join them in India very soon.
Pls bear with me i might not be posting a lot regularly these days.

Thanks guys for the good wishes.

2006-12-10T22:02:00.000+05:30

Sorry folks for the disappearing act... But it was a little dusty ride for me.
This being the first real contact with the client on their own turf there were some fundamental things that were being shaped and now is the time to reflect on all that.

Clients are also HUMAN
First of all the fear and uncertainity that surrounded the "Client side" has now evoporated. Now i know they are as flesh and bloood as they we in India are. (and as susceptible to make mistakes). They also work under constraints as we do. (I think not having CVS is one such thing. How much i wish they had it!!! Alas )

Honesty
Secondly, you have to be honest (old saying) but if you are not they will see through you and will not like it for sure. I have seen times where i have made mistakes and there have been questions to which i did not have clear cut answers and best strategy at that time is to say the truth.
You do not know and if you have an idea you can say that i guess "GUESS" this might be the solution and if they want i can further dig for the correct solution.

Time commitments
Third if you commit a Time. (Be sure to deliver it before that time i mean down to the last min if you delay by a single min. YOur client (Japanese more so) usaually get restless and think there must be some grave issue that is holding you back). Best thing is to double the ETA (expected time of availability) and add 10% to it. YOu will be surprised how you really end up using all that time. that you thought you asked E X T R A.

Confident
I have seen some junior guy making mistakes under pressure from situation. As a DBA or sys admin you have to hold your nerves steady and do the things. Confidence in your actions also makes the client at ease. but that is something that comes from experience and i do not think you can fake that.

NinCompoops

I also had to deal with a real NinComPoop whos qualities are known by everyone. and i think that there are always some people who are like this. The idea is to know how to get work done bypassing such individuals. THe Best thing is to keep personal relations with good people and then the whole ride can be a smoooth one, as people take care of each other during the whole project at various phases be it SIT UAT PROD or be it some backup procedures or be it .. some irritating problem that is only happinng in prod and can not be replicated in other 2 envs.

Documentation,
I think the best way to prepare documentation is to do it along with the work you are doing. This is something that Roger Sanders taught me. Keep a running log of documentation and whenever you find time just make it neat. YOu will be surprised at the number of things that come up showing the various nitty gritties of managing the system instead of one doc that you prepare at the end of the project when you want to rush home. i am working on that and am quite pleased with the outcome. Hope the client likes the outcome too.

Your own health
As a sick dog you are no good. So eat well. and get adjusted to the lifestyle.
I had a terrible time adjusting to the food habits as Veg Food is sooo difficult to find here. But eventually now after these 3.5 months i have managed using some Ready to Eat products and some indian restaurants that are nearby. Also managed to learn some survival cooking.

Now a days the production is up and running. so it is more of a maintainance role that i am playing with some migration and Disaster Recovery set ups creation. The end date of this is 13th Feb 07 and there is a really BIG surprise waiting for me at India. I can hardly wait to go back.

Surprise Gift for new Year waiting at home

2006-08-15T20:52:00.000+05:30

Learning the ropes of doing the work at Client side.
will be busy for next few weeks

Yesterday (17 aug ) did some patching excercise
Expecting the original docs from Tomoko san today that i used for CoE application
More patching work for today evening i suppose.

Pls bear with me.. will post in detail when the Tide is over.

Sunil

2006-08-13T18:15:00.000+05:30

Love the Thomas Friedmans Flat World experience.

Pinging from Singapore Airport.

2006-08-10T17:22:00.000+05:30

I took this site lightly, now I think this can be instrumental esp after looking at the chart below.

I understand it is at present a very preliminary site and there is little to offer.
If there is Something that anyone has on his mind pls add their comment below.
I have some plans of myself and hopefully will be updating|asking you folks about it

Thanks to all the wonderful people.

2006-08-06T10:46:00.000+05:30

Thanks Readers
---------------

I had recently introduced translations in my webpage.
http://www.artnartist.in/whatsnew.html

Next thing is I observed increased activity from countries that i least expected.
Its a big high for me Thanks guys you all ROCK. Just one concern... If someone can add in how good is google translation. from English to Japanese or French, Chinese may be .. i will have increased faith on its working.

Secondly, one info from my side, I am still not 100% sure but most probably i will be travelling outside india for the first time.

2006-06-14T16:28:00.000+05:30

Oracle 11i E-Business Suite Essentials Certification Exam available (1Z0-200
)

I checked it in Thomson Prometric They have not added this exam as yet in their list of exams available for Certification. So in way this is fresh meat.

The first exam in the certification track, Oracle 11i E-Business Suite Essentials, is now available and you can attend a course for it or utilise CD based training to cover the exam content. Personally, I'd rather learn off a CD so I think I'll be going that route. I couldn't find much more on the Oracle site about these certification tracks and what other exams are going to be included so if you know something I don't, please add your comments.
The mail from the OPN reads as follows:
Oracle University is announcing the availability of the first 11i eBusiness Applications Certified Professional Consultant programme including:
• Oracle 11i Financials Certified Professional Consultant
• Oracle 11i Supply Chain Certified Professional Consultant
• Oracle 11i Applications Technology Certified Professional Administrator
As a valued OPN Certified partner, Oracle is pleased to invite you to participate in the pre-launch beta exam process!
Special price
During the beta period, all of the exams are available at a special price of US $50. Once the introductory period expires, all online exams will be available at US $90 and testing center based exams will be priced at US $200 (partner and internal discounts apply).
No training required
Typically Oracle requires in-class training as a part of the certification track. However, for this period of time, candidates will receive a waiver for the course attendance requirement. Those candidates who can pass the exams and finish the exam requirements without taking a training course are eligible to do so during this waiver period.
Note: All exams for a track must be completed during the waiver period.
Please be aware that not all of the exams are currently available.
The first exam, 1Z0-200: Oracle 11i E-Business Essentials, is available now! This pre-requisite exam is part of the Oracle 11i Financials and Oracle 11i Supply Chain certification tracks, and is the first step in getting certified.
Expect to see a notification as the other exams become available too.

2006-05-03T15:37:00.000+05:30

Chinese Websites
==================

Now just browsing through the Fortune mag for March end 06 GOt this pile of info

Shi Hengxia - CyberDiva Hibiscus Sisters
Cisco Sun sell Hardware and Software to Block Traffick and 9 state licenced internet access providers use it

Google "Dont be evil" has posted .. an alternate site just for China which filters the content before serving the Chinese crowd.

Some pertinant sites of China
-------------------------------

www.sohu.com portal
www.baidu.com googles alternative in china (With Google servers in China, it is under heavy threat, as google started www.google.cn.)

www.bokee.com Bloggers paradise for chinese

2006-05-03T11:58:00.000+05:30

Relevence of Certifications

Recently read an article in eWeek Study Shows downSide of IT Certification

I feel that certifications are good when you are either a fresher. (No industry experience at all) and serve as a differentiator from the rest of the mee too crowd.

A Class conducted by Neil Gogte sir. (very much in teaching students coming fresh out of college ) class of around 400 people there were only 10-20 were certified. They naturally had an upper hand over their colleagues.

Alternatively for more experienced persons .. Certifications is a way of keeping up with the latest in the technology advancements. I myself am working on Oracle 8,8i,9i since a long time . As luck may have it .. i have NOT worked on all the features that Oracle provided just because there was no need for it at the Employers place. For example i have not digged into LogMiner till now or on VPDs .. or may be a new sql advancements that Oracle 10g has provided namely _USER _DATE for sql prompt.

In this scenario certifications are like a BLanket that assures that we now almost all new features that oracle has provided and not just pigeonholed into working with a few set of working things

2006-05-02T16:12:00.000+05:30

We had an old website that we build some 5 -6 years ago. www.geocities.com/suresh_studios
Preeti is working on creating a new Website for Papa.

After she booked the domain name www.SureshChoudhary.com

Hope to catch some action there .. very sooon.
Just need to get her going on FTPing to Linux host servers and things should be up and running.

Sunil

2006-05-02T11:26:00.000+05:30

Traceroute.org and how can you open telnet/notepad application from server

Looking at this application I remembered a interview question. In how many ways can you you open a notepad application at client side. I thought this one way was a stupid one. Today i think I was wrong.

2006-04-26T16:03:00.000+05:30

Milestone achieved 200th post (Steven Chans Blog on Oracle TechStack)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my 200th post. Not that i was waiting for my 200th post but just observed while creating new post 199 posts till now. (just a number but makes me feel good ;D )

I started this blog in march 2003. when i had joined Oracle. Joining Oracle was a big personal achievement.

Just yesterday got mail from Steven Chan that he has started his blog. This might be the effect of the post made to Keith (About Oracle Tech Stack having a official blog at Orablogs)

Thanks to Steven and Keith, Wonderful people

2006-04-25T17:16:00.000+05:30

Sunil Choudhary 's Blog

Have done the DEVT server Rapid Clone too..
but had to struggle a lot as few required patches were missing from the source tier.

I wonder why people have trouble in giving the downtime for applying patches to keep the system up and running.

2006-03-01T17:34:00.000+05:30

Indian Govt Grievance Cell IT enabled

Yesterday a friend of mine sent me this URL.
http://darpg-grievance.nic.in/

I am pleasently surprised. and fondly remember the scene of indian movie "Nayak" where Anil Kapoor creates a seperate ministry for greivences redressal and puts it directly under his own purview.

Of course it is too early to see anything substial coming out of this initiative.
But its worth keeping a watch..

Go India GO!!!!

2006-02-14T12:42:00.000+05:30

Competition to XMLP

How fast the times are changing.. I heard about XMLP as the latest and greatest and today I see a "me too" product offering similar services.

One can find more details about it at the following location:
http://adobe.com.au/products/server/outputpakoracle/overview.html

On a personal note
------------------
Yesterdays trial run for valentine was a big FIASCO. Hopefully It will be perfect on the V day today. Its not easy to make people feel special.

2006-02-13T15:59:00.000+05:30

Forms and Java

For PJCs and Forms
The PJCs have really come a long way since my first stint 5 years ago.

Eddie I think I hear his name a lot in LazyDBA

Applet properties forms and java link

French guy with a penchant for java and forms

2006-02-13T15:49:00.000+05:30

Hmmm .... the official Oracle blog site is up and running.
Was a bit disappointed not seeing Blog entries from any of my groupie
No Keith Swartz No Ivo Dujmovic ..... No Roger Sanders .. No Leigh Miller or Mr Green .. ;-(
Anyway .. I have posted Keith about it. Its great to know his thoughts on new developments in Oracle.

Lets see how it goes.

and Yes Just for some publicity sake (whatever little it may be) I am changing my Blogs entry name from Life of a software engg to Sunil Choudhary's Blog. "Kuch Naam to Ho"

2006-02-09T22:48:00.000+05:30

Never stop learning. (Life of a Software Engineer )

Today, completed the next round of manual Cloning of 11i Apps. Rman for the database backup although I had to change permissions from root to oraprdb:dba for all the ctl log and dbf files as such

NOthing other then this apart from the regular stuff of 35 steps that I was doing . before.

---
On a personal note...
Valentine day is coming.... it is not everyone who can have a birthday on This day.
and Having a wife whose birthday is Valentine day. I NEEED to make it special. DAMN ... I dont know how to do it. Lets see.. at least I can try to take a day off and spend time with her and move on with whatever comes through...

2006-02-07T10:22:00.000+05:30

Oracle 11i Manual Cloning

Redoing the whole stuff for the final try.
In last testing nothing really significant came up. Lets see how it goes now.

2006-02-07T10:17:00.000+05:30

Blogs getting Bigger

I started blogging 3 years ago. around the same time .. the note below talks of
...blogospehere increasing to 60 times what was online three years ago...

It feels great to be a part of such a huge revolution. and that I have been a part of it myself. (small yes but nonetheless important )

---
According to the blog trackers at Technorati, a company that indexes and searches blog postings, the number of blogs online is doubling about every five and a half months .

As of Monday, the company is tracking more than 27 million separate blogs around the world, or about 60 times what was online three years ago. About 2.7 million of those blogs are updated at least weekly, with about 1.2 million total posts appearing per day, Technorati founder David Sifry said in his "State of the Blogosphere" post on Monday.
---
FULL post here