Does Media do their job responsibly?

Cummon man!!! How many stinkers would I write??? Third in a row. Week of stinkers??? Like Week of Action (அதிரடி வாரம்) , Week of Love (காதல் வாரம்), Week of Ghosts (பேய் வாரம்) in Sun TV sometime back. Hope I wont write anymore stinkers at least for now.

Last night there was a program (I don't remember the name) in NDTV 24X7. But it got finished at 11 PM. Just browsing through the channels. Usually I wont watch news channels but got interested as they were discussing about the Bhajji issues. The anchor (I don't remember her name) called a person called "Suresh Menon", an actor and comedian. Not Revathi Menon's husband. He was talking and it was humorous. They started talking about Why Yuvi and Dhoni are getting out soon.

Then the anchor asked him, Why are you making fun of only Indians? Why not Australians? (Is it necessary??)
I thought he would genuinely say I wont do that. But to my surprise, he started doing it. He started making faces like Ponting, Symonds, Michael Clarke, and Hogg. Then he said, If Shreesant was there, it would have been a fun watching two monkeys fight. He said the names tooo as Shreesant and Symonds.

Kushwant Singh has said that "A good joke is to make fun of self". In that respect, I would say he has all rights to make fun of Indians but NOT AUSTRALIANS. Whatever Aussies have done.That too in a media watched by millions of people and at this state of mind.

A media should know their responsibilities. Without that, whatever they do and whatever cause it is for, it will be waste.

Bhajji - Racist???

One more stinker??? Give me a break yaar!!! Its not good to start a new year with these many stinkers. :(

Bhajji was claimed a racist, because he called Andrew Symonds a "Monkey", by the ICC. If Monkey is called racism what does B&$!#%D called. A blessing??? Hogg used this word in the final day of the test match.

Do we have to call Bhajji a racist and Hogg as St. Brad Hogg.???
Should Bhajji be banned for 3 tests and should we erect a statue for Hogg???

Nobody might have forgotten the celebration of Bhajji, after taking the wicket of Ponting. He rolled on the ground just like a monkey. In India, some people use monkeys, to entertain people, on the roadside by making them roll just the way Bhajji did. I don't know about other countries. If Bhajji has thought monkey will mean racism, he would not have rolled like that in front of thousands of people in the stadium and millions of people around the world watching him on TV.

And about the verdict, everybody agrees it is against Bhajji. Me too. Even to put in another way, it is in favor of Australia. Without proper proof, they have accused Bhajji.

Reason??
They wanted the record of Steve Waugh to be broken.
They were in a weak position in the first innings.
With some umpiring decisions on their side, they got to score a pretty decent one in the first innings.
India has proved them that they didn't win them in 20-20 world cup by luck, but by their talents in the match held in Mumbai, and it became a threat to Australia.

They found out the danger man in the team, who has the habit of taking Ponting's wicket. (Read this phrase from a cricket site). So Bhajji was selected and being screwed now.

Should India come back? I don't think so. These kind of things (except the verdict) happen in most of the cricket games. Lot of people are making this a big issue. Involving Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Nation's pride and who knows what else. I would say, ICC should not stop the ban on Bhajji, they should REVOKE it.

Let us not forgot what happened in the 20-20 between India and England after the exchange of few words between Yuvi and Flintoff.

Cummon India!!! You can do it.

Please note that, When I mean Australia/ Aussies in this and my previous posts, I only mean the Australian Cricket team (11 members) and NOBODY else.

India Vs Australia - Sydney Test - 2nd Jan to 6th Jan 2008

I didn't wanted my first blog of this year to be a stinker. But, what to do?? Could not resist.

I never played cricket. But very much interested in watching matches, specifically this one as this is being played after a very bad loss with Ausi in the previous test match. Very eager to watch the results.

Till 2nd Jan 2008, I was hoping the following things about cricket.
*) Each team will have 11 players
*) The umpires will be physically fit, without any physical disabilities.

But after this match, I found out that,
*) It was a match in which 14 Aussies played against 11 Indians
*) The umpires (both in the fields as well as the third umpire) are physically challenged.

In the match, there was eight incorrect decisions made.
*) Andrew Symonds was given not out thrice. (2 Stumping and 1 catch.)
The catch was because of a nick by Symonds and it was held by Dhoni. Everybody but Buckner heard it.
The next was a stumping. Buckner referred to the third umpire. But Symond's leg was still in air. But he didn't give out.
Another one stumping. Buckner didn't even go to 3rd umpire.

Note: Buckner is infamous for giving a lot of incorrect decisions that too against Sachin.

*) Then comes Ponting.
He also had a nick. Again everybody but Benson heard it.
And later there was an appeal for lbw. Here Ponting had an inside edge but was given out. The only one decision against Australia. Benson compensates.

*) Next was Jaffer getting bowled by Lee. It was a no ball. But it is still controversial. Not enough replays played. :(

*) Then comes "The Great Wall of India". Dravid. Another appeal for catch because of a nick. This time, his bat was hiding well behind his legs. The ball has nicked his pads. But was given out. Again Buckner did it.

*) Then comes Ganguly. He did a very good come back after his worse elimination from team in 2005, I think. This was a very very controversial catch taken by Michael Clarke. The ball has hit the ground when he picked it up, and while he was rolling, the ball seems to touch the ground. For this, Benson thought of asking third umpire, Ponting. OOps... He turned out to be the Ausi's captain. I don't know when Ausi's captain became the 3rd umpire. He said it was out and Ganguly was given out. Benson didn't even looked at Buckner or the real third umpire.

The last three decisions were given on the last day of the match. Since Jaffer's wicket was not proved, we'll take it as out. If, at least any of the other two decisions were right on the last day, India would have definitely saved the match and broken Ausi's record.

One more thing to note is, Michael Clarke getting out. He had an outside edge and Dravid at first slip took the catch. Clarke was waiting for long time for the decision from Umpire Benson. Only after he has given out, he left the field.

Another one is an appeal for Dhoni. While taking the catch, Ponting got up by pushing the ball to the ground and there was a very loud appeal. When the umpire didn't give out, his expression changed a loooot.

After seeing this, I felt something like, Is there anything fishy going between the Aussies and the umpires to make/break a record???

After the match is over, there was an interview with Kumble. He took all the blame on him and his boys. He said, we could have played well and didn't blame the umpires. He played a very responsible game till the end with an unbeaten 45. Very good fighting spirits.

Few months back, I think it was in a 20-20, India was chasing. Murali Karthik was batting. He had a nick almost by the end of the game, almost 7th or 8th wicket partnership was going on, and was not given out. India won the match and it is also because of Murali Karthik. Even 1 decision turns the result of the match. But here, it was almost 7 against India.

We cannot expect players to be always honest. Coz, they want to be in the field or wants the opponent to get out. It is not wrong. But the people who makes the judgment should be alert always. Even if they have a slightest doubt or not clear about something, they should seek help.

What can be done about this? The batsmen should be able to contact the third umpire in case they have a doubt and the fielders should go through the captain. I agree that this will increase the time duration. But will help in making better judgments. and avoid these kind of bad losses.

பூப்பந்தை யாரும் நீரில் பொத்திதான் வெச்சாலும் பந்து வரும் தண்ணி மேல தான்!!! (a line in a song from Chandramukhi) -> means, if u keep a flower ball inside deep water, it will anyways come up.

India will be back.
Chak De India :)

Rename multiple files

Ever tried to rename multiple files???? Recently, one of my friends asked me, is there a way to change only the extensions for a set of files. After googling for some time, I got the following. Its really good.

In Linux,
rename gif jpg *.gif

This command replaces the occurance of gif (first parameter) in the file names with jpg ( second parameter) on all files (starting from third parameter)

In Windows,
ren *.gif *.jpg

It really works. I never thought windows has such useful stuff :D. But it works only on the extension. If u want to change the file name, instead of extension, it definitely fails.

Linux still rocks :)

What is KISS?

Nice topic na ;)... But If you want this post to talk about the kiss shared by people as the symbol of love, SORRY!!! U have landed in a wrong page.

KISS -> Keep It Simple and Stupid

Tonnes and tonnes of internet sites are based on VERY VERY simple ideas. To name a few,

Somebody might have thought of missing their bookmarks when they go out of home/office, or format their machine. Then they might have really WORKED, (not like me ;)) and came up with delicious. I am a big fan of this one.

Another one is flickr. They thought of sharing photos among people. Really good idea. But one of the things I didn't like about this is, they are limiting the uploads per month. Otherwise, it is good.

One more site is orkut. This was developed as a part time project by a Google employee. Now some of the people I know, don't know what to do if orkut is down. Thank god, I am not yet an addict to orkut :)

These are developed based on simple ideas. But only simplicity is not enough. The core idea may be simple one. But IT SHOULD EVOLVE over time. Otherwise it will be considered as junk and will be directly sent to trash can over a period of time.

Heard about other incidents.

There were 2 countries sending people to space. The problem they had is they could not carry a pen. The ink got leak. So to avoid that one country spent enormous amount of money and came out with a solution. The other country decided to carry a PENCIL. :D

One more event is like, In two production (I am not sure about what is their product) companies, they were packing their product mechanically. Due to some problem with the packing machine, they had a lot of empty boxes coming out of the packing machine. One company spent a BIG money for a research to measure the weight of the boxes and trying to eliminate the empty ones. The other company used a FAN at the exit point of the packing machine. Toooo simple na...

Most of the problems will have a simple solution. The way we approach the problem, decides the effectiveness of the solution. Should not think in only one way. Have to keep our eyes and ears open.

The Art of Presentation

This time I thought of writing something about how a presentation should be. This DOESN'T mean that I am good in presentation skills. I have done ONLY ONE presentation so far and it was not a big success. But definitely increased my confidence that I too can do presentations.

This blog post is about how I think a presentation should be. The presentation I mention here is more related in terms of teaching something new to the audience. Doesn't involve annual reporting, sales and those kind of things.

First and foremost is to mention "Who will be benefited with this session". If the topic is not related to them, people like me will obviously sleep

Never make it a presentation. It should be a discussion. Presentation, I feel, is one way communication. But since the topic is about presentation, I use the same term below.

Lets assume that the presentation is about a technology or tool. Every tool/technology is introduced definitely to solve a specific problem. Otherwise there is no need for it. Give an overall picture of the problem that this technology/tool is intended to solve. Make statements like "This is where this technology/tool can be used."

The presenter should find out some sample problems that the audience can face, so that, the listener can get familiarity with the problem. Better if the listener is asked to state a similar problem and the presenter use it in that session or If possible explain the problem like a story ( I don't know anybody who hate listening to stories. Except excuses. Sometimes excuses will also be interesting).

The important thing is to make the session interactive or keeping the listeners awake. Very tough task man. Place the listener as the person who has to solve the problem. Ask questions like "What will you do if you have to solve the problem?". Get their inputs. Find out the loop holes. Explain them that "This is the problem with your approach". I like to bring the solution from the listener's mouth. This will give some comfort feeling to the listener that "Cool man. I too can solve problems". This is one of the most important factors in making the presentation a successful one.

If the problem stated is entirely new, tell the solution with some gaps to be filled up. Like an overview of the solution. And use the above mentioned approach to fill up the blanks.

Prepare slides/ppts for this kind of approach. So that even after a long time after the presentation, when a persons looks at the slides he should be able to make some sense out of it. Assuming that he remembers something out of this session. I have a weak memory. So tough for me to remember. Success lies there if I could remember )

Never ever have essays in the slides.(Most of the people know this)

Doubts should be cleared immediately. This will stretch the presentation. But with a doubt, I cannot be fully involved.

This is PURELY my personal opinion. I think these are the most important steps as per my knowledge. Once I get more experience on this, I hope to write more.

I'll try to follow these ideas when I get an opportunity to do a presentation. Lets see what effect it has :)

Memories from Aztecsoft :)

Today is my last working day at Aztecsoft. Thought of sharing some of my sweet memories from Aztecsoft. The place where I took my first step in my career as a "Project Trainee".

First few days, after the induction programs we, around 20-25 people, were given training (for 1 month) on Java. It was much of a college environment that a software company. :) Enjoyed like anything. During the last week of training, we were asked to do a project. It was about an "Online Treasure Hunt". We were asked to keep it a secret. Nobody outside the room should know what we are doing. It was fun. The most unforgettable thing is "OnDemandAPI". :)) This is the name of the class, that connects to the database and retrieve values. Whenever we need some information from Database, we will ask the people implementing this, "Hei, can you create a method called this that takes these as parameters and returns this?" We didn't think about whether a similar method exists or not. Just do it. Nice experience. Now it sounds funny.

The next interesting event is my allocation to a project. All my batch mates were getting allocated to different projects. Very few people were left. "Mera number kab aayega" (When is my turn) kind of expectation.

Then WE THREE were called. Who are we??

Rohit (My linux guru), Siva and Mani (me). In the training period, we know each other. Thatz all. Our Manager (Ramesh) called us. My inspiration. I never expected a manager to be like him. He is very talented, polite and always provides advices whenever we needed it. Our meeting was to give an overview of what we'll be doing.

We entered his cabin. There was one more person with him. Prabin. Another inspiration. He will always tell us, you guys got a very good opportunity which others wont get. Make use of this. You have to do this, do that. Sometimes, he will sit with us, do night outs before releases. These two people did quite a bit of work in shaping us up.

We had our introductions. Then Ramesh told us that we'll be working on PostgreSQL. This is the first time I heard that word POSTGRESQL. I didn't know whether i heard it correctly as it didn't meant anything for me. Then he said, "This world might not be as sexy as the java world. But you can learn a lot". The same words he used. After this meeting, I came out and asked Rohit and he told me what PostgreSQL is.

Another event is Allocation of machines. Rohit is a bit senior to us as he did his academic project there itself. Since he is passionate on Linux, he told Ramesh that we all need complete Linux boxes with no windows in it. He wanted us to explore the power of Linux. Siva too had some hands on experience on a Linux desktop. I never had. I was scolding Rohit like anything. The only commands I knew, when I got a machine, were, "ls", "pwd", "cd" and nothing else. I didn't even know how to open a terminal to execute these commands. :)) I was very embarrassed. I will always ask Siva for commands and how to open this and that. Since Rohit is the the main cause for all my sufferings, I avoided asking him. Later I thought of taking revenge on Rohit and bugged him for all "how to do". If he got fed up with my questions, I'll tell him, "I could have been well with a windows box. You selected linux. Teach me." We were asked to sit a separate cabin. Only we three. Sometimes, Siva will play a single song for a whole day. Me and Rohit will get sick of that song and scold him like anything. But he wont listen to us. Will continue. :)

As days passed, I got to know about Rohit and realized that he is really a nice person and he is now one of the best friends I have. I'll frequently start arguments (a trick to learn more about linux) with him saying Windows is good. You cannot do this in Linux. Then he will tell me, this is how to do that in linux. Now I feel more comfortable in Linux than Windows.

We three became good friends. Sometimes, 2 of us will form a team and start ragging the other. We'll behave like elementary school boys. Literally pulling the other's chairs and falling down on the floor, shouting... People have asked us many times whether we three are school/college mates. We'll tell them that "No... We three are from different places. We met only in Aztec." Really a wonderful period in my life.

Siva was not much into java. He was doing some work in C, and me and Rohit were working in Java. Days passed. Our team expanded. We got a new Lead. Anoop. He has given us some work to do. Which we couldn't finish. We could not finish another work that was given before he was introduced to us. So we thought, if we didn't do this, he will think that we people are not good. We are not doing anything properly. So me and Rohit decided to do a nightout and finished the work. Then next day Anoop came and he appreciated us for completing it. As we came to know more about Anoop, we felt that we had wrong assumptions on him. (We should not have done that night out ;)) He is very very friendly. He never talked to us like a Lead. He never maintained a distance between us. Always talk as a friend. He is one of the persons who will frequently give his comments on me. "You have this good quality. Improve it. These are your -ve points. You have to do this to overcome that". Really a nice person.

One person I have to mention here is, Vaidhy. I have already mentioned his name in one of my blogs. He is a geek. Whatever technical problems you give him, he will come up with a simple working solution. He is another role model of mine.

Then I got a project in which we had to work at the client location. While doing this project I got another good friend. Sumit. Nice person. He is senior to me. Always we'll have discussions like "this is what we should do to solve this problem". We have learned a looooot from each other. The winner is obviously me (haa haa) :). I have learned a lot more from him than he did from me. Not only technical stuff but also other things like how to interact with clients, and other personal qualities like the way we talk and do things.

We were accompanied with one more girl, Veena. She is very sincere in her work. That building had 8 floors. She will never use elevators to go between the floors until and unless any of the employees from the client location accompanies. :) Me and Sumit never used stairs :). Anoop was leading our team. He will tell us "Learn from her. You lazy guys". Work(This word is hidden from our present and future managers) / Walk like her.

After a few other projects, comes my last project. We were 5 people in this project. Me, Sumit, Rajasekar, Daya and Ashwini.
Rajasekar is the guy I interviewed and selected. But when selecting, I didn't had much hopes on him. I thought he wont work very hard. But on working with him for a couple of projects, I realized I have selected a right person.
This is the first project in which we are working with Daya and Ashwini. These two girls are really good and they work like anything.

Me and Sumit took the advantage of being seniors. We will find architects, talk to them, design and distribute the work. (I am honest. We DID take up some important modules of the project and finished those modules. I am making it clear that we WORKED). We learned a lot in this project.

Sweet memories... Will definitely miss Aztec.