Death of The Gentleman’s Game

Nothing more to say after watching second test with horrendous umpiring mistakes that went against India. It’s a black mark on Australian cricket for ever. Shame on Australian cricket and Mr. Ponting.

Civic Sense

Posted in blog city on July 5th 2003 

We Indians lack civic sense… well is it a harsh statement?… may be not!
when we are on road with a vehicle; most of us just forget that it is a public place and we should play by the rules… instead we honk mindlessly, do not follow any lanes, do not obey traffic signs, over take from both sides, use high beams night time, park anywhere we want, throw garbage onto the road from the vehicle….. we do not many a time even maintain our vehicle so that it will not cause pollution, have a proper tail lamp, proper break lights, head light, blinkers…. More specially the transport vehicles (buses, lorries, tempo travelers) are at their best during night time…. one can only see one of the head lights functioning and in full beam mode; from a distance it appears as if it is a two wheeler approaching…. I have rarely seen a lorry with proper tail lamp… and I have heard and seen accidents when these Lorries are parked on the road side without any indication and vehicles coming directly bumping into these…. these transport vehicles just do not care how much pollution they are causing… I wish these vehicles are made such that the exhaust pipe ends right before the vehicle so that the driver will have to breathe all the stuff his vehicle is emitting….. (you will know what I am talking if you ever by passed an overloaded lorry/bus emitting thick black smoke on a two wheeler)…. I even see cops standing right in middle of the road and will not even do anything about these vehicles… I wonder why!?
One more issue that I have seen is throwing garbage from bus/car on to the road. I have seen many well educated people driving in posh cars and carelessly throw cigarette butts outside on to the road. worse, these typically are still lit and not put off…. do they really have any sense of what happens if it falls on to people coming behind the vehicle…
yes… we have to change.. .we will have to change…to take our country forward…

Baboons can program!

Posted in blog city on July 16th 2003  

As per this article sent to me by Sathish yesterday, Baboons and Chimps can program in VB!

Thank God! I am a java programmer 🙂
Looks like these chimps might take some more time to understand java and I hope that keeping upto the pace of J2EE specs is relatively difficult, even for Chimps! In the mean time, I will have to seriously think about changing the profession. Hmmm… may be “Chimp body shopping” or “Chimp Breeding Farms” might be lucarative options in coming days 😉
I wonder what will MS say when they hear that chimps’ favorite is VB6.0
“Even Chimps can program in VB!”… and
Sun’s comment …  “*ONLY* Chimps can progam in VB!”
Sun might even come out with another java edition “J2CE – Java 2 Chimp Edition” so that it will easy for Chimps to pick up java! pretty amusing to think…
Seriously, if at all this becomes a reality, it definitely has the potential to change the course of current dynamics in software industry rather drastically! All the software progammers might be out of job soon and be replaced by monkeys!
Yes, human race is indeed progressing…

Comments

#1

‘‘ posted this on Thu 17 Jul 2003, 2:14 am I saw that article. It was very funny and too “complicated” to be true. Some one picking up the “poor” M$ folks. But, if what they say is true(imagine), I may soon need to look for a job. having said that, whats the guarantee that the “invasion of the apes” will not happen in that profession? hmmm looks like we will be a planet of apes soon..murali [smurali76@yahoo.com]

#2

‘‘ posted this on Fri 25 Jul 2003, 4:59 am Excellent article and a brilliant example of contortion of facts. Say it convincingly and you can get away with anything. If you take any of the link on the article, it leads to a site related to the primates, but none of them substantiate what the article states. If you visit the web site of Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary, you will find at this link http://www.iowagreatapes.org/bonobo/language/index.htm# the language used for communicating with the primates is very rudimentary. And their site does not talk about this great research on primates doing computer coding..Pheeww … Atleast my job is still a little secure.. and my paycheck is not a booklet of coupons for bananas!! ;-)) Have fun !! Gokul

More Civic Sense

Posted in blog city on August 1st 2003  

Well… I intend to do a lot, but get very little time to even do one… may be it’s just my time management ability or that my intentions are not really genuine…
Anyway, after the Driving Civic Sense blog, here is a brief list of “civic sense in indians” related things that I would want to blog on soon….

Spitting on Roads

Parking on the road side

Garbage

Travel Sense

Bad road conditions

Corruption!

Destroying public properties

Urinating in public places
On the last one there is an interesing blog here

not sure when I will get time to write all these, but I definitely will do some day!

Outsourcing

Posted in blog city on October 27th 2003 

My team-mate Avi pointed me to this interesting article on UK outsourcing to India.
This is a very interesting way of looking at this outsourcing business!

12 hours of eternal bliss!

Posted in blog city on February 10th 2004  

Wondering what this is all about?

Well, this is all about Vasant Habba (Festival of Spring), an dusk to dawn musical and dance festival held at Nrithyagram (approx. 40km from Bangalore) on 1st saturday of February every year, where all world famous Indian classical (and few contemperory) dancers and musicians will perform thorugh out the night.

I just do not have enough words in my vocabulary to describe the night! It was so mesmerizing that I did not know how 6:00PM turned into 6:00AM next day! This is my fourth visit to Vasant habba and it was as satisfying as ever!

Well, to get more insights into what the festival is all about and some highlights of this year, visit this & this.

Also, do not forget to mark your calenders for Vasant habba – 2005 (Feb 5th, 2005)

Update on Dec 31st 2007 – as far as I know Vasanthabba did not happen in last two years due to lack of sponsors. A sad state of affairs.

Perception

Posted in blog city on March 8th 2004 

I really liked this quote “A person’s perceived competence is a key principle of influence”

This was from the this article  in EA online which outlines some principles for a technical architect to be successful!

Even though all the points are right, these are not specific for an architect. Nearly everything is applicable for every one irrespective of the role they play in an organization.

So, it is extremely important for any one to portray a “image” of thier own (also called as “personal brand building” ). In some training classes I have attended, instructors have even advocated to create a 7 second commercial about one self and be fully prepared to deliver that commercial even in sleep! If you are wondering I am a sales person at this time, no I am not! I sincerely believe it is essential for any one who wants to “grow” in life to have a brand of his/her own so that they can be “perceived” in a way that can help meet thier ambitions!