Envisage of the decade

It was merely the end of the previous decade I was struggling hard to understand what was Y2K problem. Today I am at my cubicle, nonchalantly checking out google maps to find out a couple of good restaurants in the Cunningham street. This decade which molded me from school kid to a college brat, college brat to a devoted employee, minor to a major and nonetheless, major to a married, had been a whirlpool yet holding a special place in my heart in sorts of events, places and people. As I look around , I am overwhelmed by the evolution that has happened swiftly and silently.

Some of the remarkable evolutions and initiations of the decade:

I remember my uncle having a cell phone, which resembled a TV remote control with an antenna. I have bragged about it in school, as it was seldom seen that time. But now from youngster to oldster, from house wives to business men, from cobbler to president, everyone has a mobile. Numerous service providers, numerous handsets, CDMA, GSM, Blackberry, O2, Dual Sim, flip, slid, twist, GPRS, 3G and more.

The audio tapes have become an antique. First CD and DVD players took over, then came the iPod.

Workstations are replaced by laptops. These small notebooks is our world now. Its a style statement more than a necessity.

Anything and Everything is online now. I have to make a special mention of “google”,without which our life (esp. mine)would be like living in darkness. Zillion web sites orkut, facebook, gmail, ebay, bookmyshow, dictionary, blogger, wikipedia, matrimony, twitter etc etc.. leading to depletion of IPv4 address. Browsing, Checking mails, updates, tweets, scraps and chatting has become part of our routine.

Media Should I call it a Satan or an Angel? We are engulfed by the television. The number of TV Channels has increased 3 folds compared to the start of the decade. We devote higher priorities to the outrageous “Mega-Serials” than for our loved ones. We prefer to be a jackass in the reality shows than being a dignified human being. We have also identified the dancer, singer, entertainer, bride and even solved family problems on air.

Furthermore is the News Channels, one hand they marched for jessica lal on the other exaggerated a tweet by Shashi Taroor.



Shopping meant haggling with the shopkeeper for a mere 5 rupees in the past decade. Now its a walk in to the mall, choose a brand, customize the design, swipe the card and worry about the bill later.

100's of actors, 1000's of movies, Million's spent on it, and watch it in a clean, small, expensive Multiplex akka the “adda”.

I have never heard the word “Resort” before. It was either lodge or the hotel. Whether its honeymoon, party, wedding, or outing, we all end up in a resort.

All the Spa I knew as a kid was an oil bath. As I assume these spas are gimmicky of the age old oil bath.

Thanks to the Low cost flights which has helped me travel to and forth office and home and making me feel at home.

How can evil stay behind. Millions of bombs had been blasted. Immense wounded and dead. The ease of life has eased terrorism.

I am not sure how I should conclude. Just hoping that end of the next decade, I would write a blog about end of terrorism and end of social evils.

Wish You all a Happy New Year and a New decade.

Sunitha Krishnan's Ted Talk

Look into the world we live:
Must Watch, Should Watch. Please Watch..

CaCoPhOnY at the break of dawn

The bosky chilled morning breeze snuggles down and brushes my hair as the wind rustles through the leaves, waking up to the melody of the singing bird and enjoying a aromatic cup of tea as the sun leaps out of the hills, is the classic morning, I entice. I have encounter many such mornings, but never relished them. My heart now sinks as I wake up to the jangling clatters every morning.

As the dawn breaks, I burst out of my dreams to the rasping of the broom. Even before the clock ticks 6 and the darkness withdraws, in the dusk of dawn, my neighbor is eager to clean the porch. She starts with a dry run followed by wet one. As she scrapes the cemented floor with the whisk and splatters water, I just wanna open the drapes and ask her to “Give the porch a rest”. Thanks to the mason who had made the porch strong enough to sustain the violence.

Chasing this, the temple and churches start their hollers. Does anyone really listen to that screech of instruments/voices? Let me get it straight, are they hoping to attain god(s) with that or scare them away. Seriously, I don't understand the purpose. Not to mention, the outrageous howls during festivals and special events.

As my ear adapts to the shriek, the “War of Barks” starts. Its like a chat across the streets. As I picture, once a dog whistles a “Good Morning”, the combat takes off. The Good Mornings and gossips flags off from every dog in the audible range. This continues throughout the day and night and sometimes all night.

There was times, I pitied people who lived close to highway. Now “Wherever you go, the horn follows”. Then there is slamming of doors, obnoxious ring tones/ reverse horns, extremely loud alarm etc.. etc.. Still I manage to slumber to jazz up my day ahead, but its a slumber not a blackout.

Zone 1 – Spring Chicken

My Own Philosophy:

Every employee has to face a chunk of torment for a few weeks in the new office,its called the Spring Chicken Zone. In the Zone, there are 4 stages or the 4C's (Confusion, Comparison, Complaint and Composure), that one would encounter. 4 C's is discussed below in the chronological order:

Stage 1: (Confusion)
How will my colleagues be? Old or young? Guys or Gals? Will they be interactive? Where will be my cubicle? Will it be secluded? How will be the people in my cubicle? With whom should I go out for lunch? What about tea/coffee? How will be the work? Will I get to learn something good? Will it add value to my profile? Will I use my skills? How about my manager? Will he/she be bossy? How will he handle leaves? Will he be inclined to certain people? Will he be co-operative? Do I have permission to access this site?

Stage 2:(Comparison)
There used to be biscuits in the coffee rooms, in my previous company. In my previous team, we used to conduct meeting very rarely. People in my previous team were fun. Here people come so early and they seem so sincere. In my earlier company, we used to go out for lunch a bit early. The process there was better. Navigation is kinda of difficult here.

Stage 3: (Complaint)
Come on, How do you expect me to know where the lab is? Where will I find the Employee self-service/server build, God everything is very difficult over here? I have to open the bank account, What is the HR team doing? Everyone around me are busy, how will I learn something? What the hell, I have never used selenium or ant or QTP, how do you assume I can run the script?

Stage 4: (Composure)
Chalo, I cannot do anything unless someone gives me a lead, Let me chillex till then. I have a dead line for the assignment, but I will say, its my first attempt and I will escape. Cannot read more docs, let me go home. Let me orkut for a while, if someone says its prohibited, I will manage saying I didnt know that. Oh, this is how it is done, first day when he showed a demo, everything looked like guns and bombs. Its so simple.

Once the Zone is mastered or the Spring Chicken is skinned out, the next Zone is the Dark Horse.

Please vote the Poll "Should I continue Zone 2 - Dark Horse"

(Will Be Continued)

Software Engineer's Bhayam

Hi,

Since my project is yet to start I am having loads of time. I thought I would try out something different. I have adapted Famous Kamal's dialog in the Movie Thenali. Ya, the Bhayam one, for a software tester. I am very poor in spelling out tamil in English. So bear with my spelling mistake and also please comment me wherever i went wrong so that I can update them.

Hope you will enjoy it. Fingers Crossed.

Incase you want to view the video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjkNU6ncTTU


Ellam siva bhayam endru sollevirkal,
ennaku ellam bhayam mayam,
software testing bhayam,
Software Testing, the bugs stops here endru vaelai ellatha software engineer forums la sonnavar, bug raise panna bug invalida pooiyudumo endra bhayam ennaku,
setup bhayam ennaku,
installation bhayam ennaku,
quick installum bhayam,
complete installum bahyam ennaku,
mount bhayam, map bhayam,
log check pannavum bhayam,
test plan review endrallum bhayam,
test case creation'um bhayam ennaku,
test case execution pannavum bhayam,
test success aanaalum bhayam,
test fail aanaal therundhay solluvuvaen koola bhayam ennaku,
unix bhayam ennaku, windows bhayam ennaku, server bhayam ennaku, client bhayam ennaku,
cubicle endral bhayam ennaku, lab endrallum bhayam ennaku,
labku ullal errukira server machine kandalum bhayam ennaku,
testing la manual, automation,
automation panra selenium'um bhayam ennaku,
performance test panra QTP, QTP la use panra VB Script bhayam ennaku,
VB script syntax oruaanum tappa-ayidumo endra bhayam ennaku,
[Sit Down] Nandri,
team meeting bhayam ennaku,
project meeting bhayam ennaku,
mail bhyam ennaku, messenger bhayam ennaku,
endha team lead bhayam, project lead bahyam, manager bhayam, architect bahyam, developer bhayam, support bhayam,
customer bhayam, avar ellai endralum bhayam ennaku,
[Excuse mister], endha language'um bhayam ennaku,
shell scripting, perl scripting, vb scripting, java scripting, Apple scripting, Micro Scripting, Action Scripting, Unreal Scripting, post Scripting, Tran-scripting, endru pala scripting languages errukendrathu enna solluvinar,
yendha scriptingum unnaku theriyavillaiyada,
kadavul thaen unnai kaapattha vaenum endru solli HR ennai veetuku anupinavar,
anga ponnal, naurki bhagam, monster bhayam, timesjob bahyam, resume bahyam, cover letter bhayam, yendha job'kum apply panna bhayam,
apply pannathuku reply varavelli endrallum bhayam,
job interviewerai anuga bhayam,
anugheya job interviewla select aavamo enra bhayam,
reference katekayum bhayam,
directa apply pannavum bhayam,
techincal round bhayam,
hr round endrallum bhayam,
interviewerai parka yenno bhayam,
telephonic attend pannallum bhayam,
C bhayam, C++ bhayam, java bhayam, db bhayam, oops bhayam, networks endrallum bhayam, software testing concepts bhayam,
Software endralla bayam!!!!

Vegetarians among Non-Vegetarians

We (a group of 8 people), had a small party at “Barbeque Nation” yesterday. Except Me and my husband, all the others were vegetarian, partially though. Added to the hitch, there was a sea food festival going on. Our barbeque course had many options fishes, prawns, crabs, squid, chicken and mutton while the vegetarians had few. As our course kept coming, others felt abandoned. Since, I was throwing the party, I felt downhearted. To my relief, they had good choice in the buffet. Ultimately, the party was good and we all had a good time.



While returning home, I was trying to comprehend the situation from both the perspective.

Non-Vegetarian Speaks:
“How is it possible to eat grilled pineapple, when there is a rooster chicken in front of you? Wow! I should appreciate their determination. But sad, they have very little choice and it looks so dull, look at my plate how colorful it is. However, we don't see how it is prepared. It's a throw of the dice, there is always a risk of tangle.”

Vegetarian Speaks:
“How can they eat something that smells so bad? I hope there is a separate kitchen and they don't mix up the vessels. I hope the waiter served only the vegetarian food. God, its so annoying to reconfirm every time a dish is served and to wait for someone to taste it first. Look at those plates, they are always full, while mine is always empty. :@”

Being a non-vegetarian, I really feel sorry for the vegetarians. Also feeling bad for not letting them have a peaceful dinner. So, I will go with the majority and try veg restaurants henceforth.

What passes your mind when you are among vegetarian/non-vegetarian?

No more meetings Please

It's over a month I have joined my new company, but I have spent around 24 hours (3 work days) attending meetings/telecasts [just the official group ones]. I get at least a couple of meeting requests/delegations every day. I have a feeling that if someone sneezes, there will be a meeting where the speaker will say “It's important to understand our objectives for the year 2010 and align it with the process of sneezing”. I just wait when the speaker will complete so that I can get out of there. But I am not so lucky, once the speaker stops, he is flooded with the usual questions. These question never change or its mostly not relevant to the purpose of the meeting. The audience who ask these questions have a strange behavior, they ask question only when we have something urgent to do or when the speaker is about to wind-up like showing the chocolate put not giving it. It's over my threshold and hence thought I will blog regarding these frustrating meetings.

Facts:

1. Every Knowledge Sharing session is best accomplished when scoped to a small group say a strength of 20 – 30 people.

2. Human capacity for observation is 30 to 45 min.

3. When met in a large group, people pay more attention to other people around them than to what the speaker says.

These are the facts that everyone know. Now I have few questions,

WTH do we have meetings for all the employees, which means for a group of 400 – 500 people (in my case), clearly there is very less we understand from the knowledge shared.

Why are the meetings for few hours? I just cannot focus on whats going on for so long. I tend to sleep or start looking at people around me.

Why do they repeat the same stuff again and again and again? Every meeting says, Lets understand our objectives of year 2010. I am tired of hearing there words.

I believe there are many other questions popping in the heads of every frustrated meeting attendees. There is a need for a re-engineering in the method of conducting the meeting. Few changes I will expect are

1. Conduct all employee meetings only when they are highly important

2. The general updates can be shared as a mail or through the managers

3. Conducting meeting whenever people come from other offices should be optional. Reason: I rarely understand his accent and He is also going to repeat the same

4. Listening to Conference calls is very irritating, same reason I just cant understand what they say and many times there is lot of disturbance in the call

5. Repeating of the same information should be avoided, because once I knows its the repeated topic I just stop listening

6. When a meeting is conducted say 1 hour, it is not just 1 hour, 10 – 15 min it may get delayed, 10 -15 min for people to commute, 10 – 30 min a small discussion about the meeting or a break after meeting. There is an addendum of 45 min to 1 hr. So meeting spoils the nearly 2 hrs of the effective work time

7. Phones should be kept in silent mode and bring laptops to take down notes should be avoided. Sometimes I just hear the jamming of the keys in the laptop or bizarre ring-tones.

Final Word: I am a person who hates meeting. Many people love meetings. If you are one of those please pardon.

Please vote the poll "What is the most frustrating part in an Employee Meeting?"

Techie a school kid

Techie is in fact a school kid. He wakes up remembering a meeting or training for which he will be late like the kid who forgot to complete his homework. He carries a bag with god knows what all but merely useless stuff and a laptop where his life starts and ends similar to notebooks of the kids. He reaches office and searches the crap he carried to find he has forgotten the access card. Now making the face of a kid who forgot to get the signature of the parent in the diary he goes to the security section for a temporary card. Security are the boss now, after the lots of gyan and procedures, he is given the temporary card. Then he hurries to the meeting which has started long back. Entering the meeting room, everyone in the room will give him a stare same as kids stare at the one who is late to the assembly.
The very authentic behavior can be seen when the performance discussions happen or the hike letter is distributed. Techie takes every efort to find out the hike of the other techies like how the kids wait to find the numbers of other kids in the exam

As a techie we should be proud we still retain the innocence of a school kid :p