sitting at home

After a long time, today I have decided to just sit and relax at home. Not feeling too well. So I guess a good time to enjoy at home.

Cleared SCBCD

Yesterday, I cleared Business Component Developer certification from Sun. Got 90 percent score. Was a little less than I had expected. Got 7 questions wrong out of 70. Must have made very silly mistakes. Neways, now I am planning to take Java developer exam. lets see, if I can take it this year itself or not.

promoted

The latest news is that I have been promoted to Senior Software engg. It is not going to change my life in anyways, and I think there is not much to celebrate. They should have promoted me last year instead of this year. Last year I worked much harder and smartly than this year. But you know the way things work in bog companies. This year I hardly worked with full focus. Was caught up in few things out side office all the time. But hopefully, after 31st August, I will get more time to concentrate in office.

moving to different location

Today my project is moving to a different location. The new building is located on the ring road just next to Intel campus. A little far from my place but it is fine. Company will be providing transport, so no tension now. The pictures of the new location look good atleast much better than the current one which has pigeon hole sized workstations. Let see....after 6 we will start packing our things.

100th anniversary of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity

Today is the 100th anniversary of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.
In early 90's when people were obsessed with the quantum physics, Einstein was working on his unified theory which will put together all the theories in one place and explain everything in the universe.

His belief was that everything can be described in simple mathematical equations and his argument in the fight with other scientists who believed in quantum physics was that "God does not play dice".

On his deathbed, till his last moment, he kept working on his unified theory.

my company needs manager's signature to give me a pack of pencils:))

Today I went to the stationary guy to get a box of pencils(10 pencil) and a pack of binder clips. I filled up the form but that guy asked me for my manager's signature and that too because I was asking for a box of pencil:)) Ultimately he agreed to give me 4 pencils without my manager's signature.

Einstein

I am actually very much impressed with Einstein. You can say I am a big fan of his. I don't know all about his theories but little enough to imagine what a big genious he was. How on earth, one can simply imagine or even a wild thought that time can be slowed down if we move with great speed or that we have a fourth dimension also? Frankly, even till now, I don't have that ability to think about it. May be it has something do with education? May be if I learn pure science, it may open my mind to think more broadly?

My right brain is rusty to an extent that it calls for emergency measures

I have studied core subjects like optics, quantum physics, elecromagnetism, atomic physics and ..... in college. But frankly speaking, I don't know a single thing about all this. Just cleared the papers somehow.(the open secret is that one does not need to study to clear exams in Delhi university:))

But lately, I have an urge to study these subjects again. My job is not giving me enuf kick. Surely, I keep learning new technologies related to programming but that is not science. It is plain logic. and on day to day basis, one does not even need to apply logic. It is all routine work which one can do with closed mind and that is what I have been doing till now. It is not science for sure. Just doing the things with hook or crook and once the program is running no body cares how it works and whether it is a good way to do it or not. We somehow, have missed the opportunity to link programming with science. Though, they call it computer science, it is not science. May be in the things related to computer hardware, it may be true but surely programming is still being done in a very unscientific way.

So whole day my right brain keeps screeming that I should use it. but for years now, I have not used it. And my brain is getting rusty. The only way to get my right brain working, I feel, is to learn physics or maths. That can be the only simulant to my brain.

The systems are still down:(

The systems are still down:(

Today also I cannot finish off my work!:(

Yesterday eclipse was playing games with me and today the backend system is down. How on earth I am supposed to finish my work!!! We are still living in stone age. Are these the tools, and the systems that are going to move us ahead technically?

Non technical technology company

Why Indian companies can't give laptops so that I can work from home. I came all the way to office and found that the backend systems are down. Such a big waste of time! My company(better not name it here) even though is a technology services company, still I find it so non-technical in all the ways. To even get a pencil, I need to fill up a form. Can you believe that! Such a waste. and more than waste so embarrasingly non-technical thing to do! Means, shouldn't we have technical ideas flowing out of every part of the company, so that it creates an environment where people can think out of the box and imagine what has not been done before and innovate and truly deliever technical ideas? Just to give an example, few weeks back, I came to office on weekend and forgot to bring my I-card. Can you believe me that thay didn't allow me to enter the office! They had no system in place to verify if I was an employee of the company. No database, no other security authorization. A technology company does not have technology in place to verify my identification! Is this the impression one would like to give to the prospective client?

Compare this with my last company. Everything and anything there was done online at the click of the mouse. All the applications were web-enabled, with single sign-in.
During my year long stay in that company, not even once I had to move out of my desk to get anything done. Simply impressive. This company has a Arvind mills showroom within the campus and to show the company's technical capabilities, it developed RFID based system for this store. This goes in a long way to create an impression about the company and shows the eagerness of the management to develop technical capability within the company and show it to the prospective clients.

Eclipse is making me crazy:(

:((
I have written some code that is not working. and for most non-technical reason.
One of the expressions shows diffent values in the variable and expressions in debug mode. It is the most stupid thing I have seen till now. I am completely at loss, what to do!!:(

HIV+ve grooms break barriers

Read this article http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=72714

HIV -ve women marrying HIV +ve. One of these women says
"There is more to marriage than having children. There are other factors like affection and support and if he is a good human being, why not?’’
See what these guys have to say ‘‘Men who are financial well-off manage to find such women. The reverse trend has not been noted,”

After reading this or even with common sense, one can easily make out what were the reasons behind HIV -ve women marrying HIV +ve men.

One of these guys says:
Two of the responses I got were from a 19-year-old girl in my area whose father did not have money for her dowry while another was a 23-year-old widow with a seven-month-baby whose husband had died in a road accident,

Simply pathetic. Do we really have any human values left in our country!!!!!!

Are we in Matrix?

Today morning, while coming to office, I was walking on the footpath that leads to my office. It is a very small footpath so usually one has to walk slowly in a kind of queue. Not sure why, but today I was thinking about it and it felt so strange. Hundreds of people walking around. I don't know them and they don't know me. I am just one of the lakhs, crores of people. It also remembers me of the matrix. In of the scene, where Morpheous takes Neo to some training programme to explain him about his existence and there are lots of people walking and Neo is confused not being able to understand where he was and what was happening to him, trying to comprehend the bigger picture but his views, ideas still stop him from doing that. Are we also not like Neo, getting up everyday, getting ready for office, coming back home and ........ We are bound by a programme of which we dont have the clear idea or bigger picture. We don't question our schedule as if bound by something which we can't see, something that stops us from thinking more than what we are thinking right now. Are we actually some program running in a predefined space? Could it actually be true that we are into something like Matrix. Jokes apart, sometimes I really feel that it could be true.

nothing is as boring as coming to office on weekend for office work

Seems like I will have to come to office this weekend:( I have to finish some work that is important but it is very boring. Let see, I still have 3-4 hours. Trying to complete the work today itself.

If it is not office work, then it is not a problem. I do come to office on weekend but for my own work only. It is fun actually. With no one around. I can play music loudly. No one to disturb. The only problem is that I dont get anything to eat in office. The cafeteria is closed and there is no restaraunt nearby.
So I usually take heavy breakfast cum lunch on weekend so that I can manage without food for few hours in office.

Rough flight from Delhi to Bangalore

The flight from Delhi to Bangalore this Monday was the most rough flight I ever took. Right from Delhi where it was raining heavily till Banglore the plane was shaking all the time. The pilot switched off the Seat belt sign off for hardly few mintues duing the 2 and half hour flight. I was so glad to reach Bangalore in one piece:)I must have travelled hundred time by now, but I dont know why I am still scared when the plane takes off.

Nuclear rivals in Siachen talks

India and Pakistan are holding discussion on how to demilitarize the Siachen glacier. Pakistan want India to vaccate its positions on the glacier. I seriously hope that the Indian government does not do that. We just simply cannot trust Pakistani's. We have burnt our fingers in the past. Lets not do it again.It is our land and whatever the cost may be we should not leave our posts there. Pakistan stabbed us in the back just few years back in Kargil. If the question comes up again, we should always remind the pakistanis about the similar arrangement we had in Kargil heights. i.e, both the armies will vaccate their positions during winter and no one will try to take advantage of this and see what happened. You can trust dogs, but not pakistani's. Lets not do it again.

Sun Tech Days Bangalore 2005

I attended the Sun Tech Days conference on 19th and 20th May and I have still not been able to get that thing out of my mind. It was a spectacular conference with lots and lots of things to learn. But one thing that really bothers me is that I could not attend the code camps there. It required people to bring their own laptops and unfortunately, I don't have one:( I wish I had not spend so much money on my new desktop. I really hate myself for not being able to attend the code camps. My company had sponsored my participation and I seriously wish they had provided me a laptop for 2 days. neways, what has happened has happened. So I should try to forget about that now. Keep tuned to my blog especially Whatdidyoulearntoday.blogspot.com to check for detailed analysis of the sessions I attended at Sun Tech Days. Will write more abt my experience there later.

"What Matrix Persona Are You?"

Guess, on the basis of few questions I answered, they thought that my personality is like that of Agent Smith!!!!!!

You are Agent Smith, from "The Matrix."
No one would ever want to run into you in a
dark alley. Cold as steel, tough as a rock,
things are your way or the highway.


What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

How much nerd I am

Today I took the Nerd quiz. Guess what...I was ranked as low rank nerd:))

Vaibhav Kalia

Vaibhav Kalia
Originally uploaded by sainideepak.

Vaibhav Kalia. He is a very good friend of mine. He is brother of Captain Saurabh Kalia, a great man who sacrificed his life for India.

Vaibhav is from Palampur in Himachal Pradesh. Palampur is known for its tea gardens. It is such a lovely place than you will never want to come back from there.

University photograph

cef5
Originally uploaded by sainideepak.

University photograph. Find me in this picture!

Suggestions for Karnataka CM

Karnataka has done it again!!!! Congrats to CM and people of this state.

Students of other parts of India can no longer study in Karnataka.
Few months back, it put some restriction on Hindi movies being played in cinemas in Karnataka and few cinemas who dared to show Hindi movies were attacked by goondas.

I have few more suggestions for this state

1. Karnataka can issue new passports to people of this state.
2. It should start issuing visas for Indians.
3. Indians who stay in this state should be taxed.
4. The state should prepare an army to protect the state from Indians(remember they call people from other parts of the country as outsiders!)
5. Karnataka should launch an exclusive airlines, railways, buses specifically for Karnataka people.

Any other ideas people? Do tell. Karnataka CM wants to keep Indians off his state.

Only if we had any more people like Vivekanand left in our country who believed India is one country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari!

Shame on us.

About Gurgaon. I never thought it had such a rich history

Ever thought why it is called Gurgaon?
(for some who don't know where is Gurgaon. Gurgaon is situated in the National Capital Region of Delhi)

Well, Gurgaon means Guru + gaon. that is, village of guru. It is said that Gurgaon is the ancestral village of Guru Dronacharya, the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas.

Who owns my emails?

Read this article

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4164669.stm

That is an interesting question. I write my mails may be at Yahoo, Hotmail, Indiatimes....., so I must be the owner of these emails! Right? But hey lets check the terms and conditions of these email service providers. At indiatimes, I could see no mention of this.

So I still donot have any answer for the following questions:-

1. Does email service provider owns my emails?
2. Can the service provider can make my emails public?
3. If something happens to me, what happens to my emails? Does someone inherits my emails?

Does anyone has any idea about this?

Why do we have so many languages?

Today, I was working on some task, which took me almost double the time because the software was throwing errors in Norwegian language which I donot understand. Many a times, I wonder why we have so many languages in the world. It is such a nuisance. Shouldn't we have just one language, may be English only!

We need language to communicate with each other and when Language itself becomes a barrier to communication, do you still think having so many languages is a good thing?

Delete 'Sindh' in 'Jan Gan Man'?

Sanjeev Bhatnagar, a scientist and speed skating champion, who represented India in the Asian Games, made a plea to Supreme Court that "Sindh" be removed from out national anthem since Sindh is now a part of Pakistan and not India. wow:) I never thought about that.

Well, the Govt in response to the SC directions replied in the parliament that the word Sindh cant be removed as it just doesn't reflect the state of Sindh, but the Sindhi culture which is still a part of Indian culture.

A gud reply indeed:) Why do people even waste their time thinking abt these things and donot concentrate on real important things!

On the lighter side, a friend of mine suggested that we should not only keep Sindh in "Jan Man Gan" but we should also include other places also such as Baluchistan, Lahore ....:) Because ultimately, these places will one day become part of India:)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/979238.cms

Trip to Hyderabad

Hi,

Just came back from a trip to Hyderabad. It was great fun. I have been there once. But last time, didnt get time to see the city. This time, we went to few places around the city. City is so different from Bangalore or for that matter to any other city in India. Sometimes, I feel whether it is indeed just one country. There is so much difference in culture, style, people, everything. But I alwayz have a feeling of comfort that I am in my country only, even though thousand km's away from my home place.

Hyderabad, is a city in transition. from being the city of nawab's to city of modern India. One can see that distinction clearly when we move from Secunderabad to places like Banjara hills, or Jubili hills.

All in all, it was a great trip. Had lots of fun. Will upload few photos of the trip later.

Happy New Year!

Hey people, we have moved onto the year 2005. Hope this year will be gud for everyone!