Me, myself and my thoughts....

Moving to Wordpress...

2007-03-01T23:50:00.000-08:00

I have moved my blog from blogspot to wordpress...

Its an adieu to blogspot....I will never forget the experience with blogspot since it helped me to get a writer out of me...It was the stepping stone...

I have no idea if I will be migrating this olds posts to wordpress or just leave them as a mark in blogspot...

Please continue reading by blogs through wordpress...

Stay connected... :)

At the end of the day what matters is….

2007-01-15T00:52:00.000-08:00

A lot of times we come across lot of people saying “At the end of the day what matters is…”

Just a phrase or a sentence during casual talk, Isn’t it?

But what really matters at the end of the day?? Is it happiness?? Is it joy?? Is it money?? Or else what is it that matters??

I know now each one may have different answers…The answer does vary…But all it ends up in “self satisfaction”. I think happiness, joy and all what you want at the end of the day is subset of self satisfaction.

Well people again define (self) satisfaction in their own terms, for me it’s living my life the way I wish…

Did I ever a single day of my life as I wish?? When I ask this to myself…I don’t really get an answer…May be yes…may be no…or may be not…

I decided that I should be myself from now on…no matter what it costs…no matter where it takes…unless and then it hurts someone I decided I should be myself…Whether its work or play or fun…

So from now on “At the end of the day what matters is my self satisfaction…”

Theory of Relativity

2006-04-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

Hmmm….Now don’t raise your eyebrows or sigh on the monitor…This is not all about Einstein’s theory of relativity but the core concept is derived from it :)

Well what is relativity? And why is it the point of discussion now?

I would define it as all things, perspectives, thoughts and all other human mental parameters are relative.

Wait! Relative! Relative to what?

Good question :) well relative to their own belief of facts, inference and experiences in their own life, Isn’t it true?

My one and half year old niece likes candies and ice-creams as every other kid does, wherever he finds an ice-cream parlor or candy shop his siren goes up, Well my belief or inference from the past is that he might catch cold if he eats ice creams. So I would say a big NO! NO! The rest of the struggle for ice-cream that happens is a history :)

Yes I did say belief or inference from past, that’s right! This means in some corner of mind there is a belief that ice-creams are not good for him at that time…Now the question is how did I come to this conclusion? May be my past experience, either a self experience or an experience where in I learnt from a similar situation which happened to my neighbor’s kid? Or the decisive factors around, May be the climate was too cold for an ice-cream. It’s based on all these parameters of belief and constraints we make up our decisions.

And believe me almost most of the decisions cannot be rolled back, it’s always like
“Two roads diverged; I took the one less traveled and that made all the difference”

So next time when we decide lets keep in mind, Lets throw away all our past experiences, because situations where you might need to take a decision will always not be the same and theory of reusability can hold good for physical things but not for decisions. Start Fresh, Analyze the situation…Think on a long term basis…Always decide for the future too, because that’s what planning is all about, Mark down the pros and cons of a decision, decide upon the returns you expect and then work according to your brain rather than your heart (at least for decisions, For love it’s the vice versa).

Once decided…Start working on it (the one I miss often), then you can change the lines as
“Two roads diverged; I took the one relatively better and that has made all the (positive) difference”

A Wonderful Moment...

2006-04-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

I am back again with a words of new thoughts in my mind :)

Yes This is about the wonderful feelings which most of us have in our life. These moments were silent yet happy where just eyes speak and hearts listen. Well most of them call these as most romantic moments.
This happend in 05-Apr-06, Well thats how we denote dates in our workplace ;)

It was asusual a lazy morning, I did not want to get up from my bed but I had to do it reluctantly. I got ready within 30 minutes and was in my cubicle within 15 minutes from there.

Everything was the same, Codes..exceptions..bugs..reports..coffee's nothing changed till the moment I was in a meeting with my lead in San Jose. And me and my collegue were even pretty surprised hear our project manager was gonna join with us during the meeting. Well as usual my panaromic guess, my brain started pumping its own imagination. It started sending signals thats its gonna be regarding some extra work we had to do...or some mistake we did...or some expectation mismatch and blah!blah!blah!blah!

It was meeting time and we were asusual ahead of my PL in the meeting bridge, We were used to attending more meetings that even the inbuilt voice guidelines were in our memory :)

And our PM also joined in with us with an unusual smile in his face. Now my brain started acting again...I said to myself..Chill off! Chill off! This is yet another meeting and nothing strange..And if at all something bad happens face it because some way or other you are a reson for it. Now I was brave as Titan from Greece..Ready to face what ever it costs..

Now our PL was logged in the bridge, We exchanged usual wishes...Then she started telling our efforts were recognized. Recognized! What? Is it positive or negative? Within a second next words came, she said you have been awarded one of the prestigious awards as a part of appreciation for our work.

Wow! Here is that wonderful silent moment, Now my PM smiled at us again and handed over the appreciation letters. His eyes glittered in happiness which illuminated our mind and soul with happiness inturn. With a plain smile towards my colleague I started reading my appreciation letter. Each and every word in there was empowering my mind, Yes..What she had said was right! our efforts were recognized...The rest of the meeting was asusual.
After the meeting I came to my cubicle with a silent unexpressive happiness in my mind. I gazed at the monitor and smiled silently to myself...I started thinking..Did I really do it? Is my effort so valuable? All kind of questions.

But yes the moment of silence and happiness was rejoicing. I loved my career so much and I took this as a return symbol of love from it.

This was the recent wonderful moment, But each one of us would have our own wonderful moments, The thing is how were recognize it and enjoy it...Feel it..because if you miss it you are missing something worthy in life...You are missing an oppurtunity to understand yourself...You are missing to love yourself.
Even if the moments is happy or sad, Spend some time with yourself alone you will learn something from it :)

HaPpY WoNdErFuL MoMeNtS!!!

Time Log

2005-11-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

“When you walk with the Giants you learn to fly…..”

This is one of my favorite quotes…

This might be a familiar quote…I heard it on my first job when I was working as Support Professional….

There had been times when this quote was really true..

Now I’m working with the giants…Im learning flying :)

Wat it simply means is that…..One step of a giant is like flying for us when we try to walk with them….Which simply means for that we need to fly to maintain pace with the them…

At times I feel Im lacking the so called dynamism in me…:) coz as my mom always says im the most laziest creature in the whole world…

So what im planning to do is maintain a work log for my daily working and log in every moment of my work…

At the end of the week I would be knowing how much I spent useful and how much was a waste…Also we would be conscious about what we are doing :)

Im planning to start this strategy from this Monday…I will keep writing how it worked for me J if it’s a success you can also give it a try…

This is especially for lazy people like me ;)

Nothing Changes Like Change..

2005-07-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

This is of course common saying...

But in real life we are more accustomed to usual things, meaning usual routines which makes us feel the changes implemented on them is tough to adhere with...

For example…
Previously I used to come in the Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus for which i start by 7:30AM to the bus stop, I get a bus by 7:45 AM and I get in to it and reach my office by 8:30AM,I was getting used to it...

One day the bus was late...It was heavy down pour.... Alas. I couldn’t bear that change...I was scolding the Bus driver, The TN Government, The Rain and each n everything around me...

After a few weeks I happened to get accustomed to the habit of getting my dad's vehicle to office...And incase there’s is some mishap or there a problem in the vehicle...Again its a change...and same old thing happens again

This might sound something like Pavlov's experiment which we mite be familiar with...But Pavlov’s experiment demonstrates the adaptability of humans towards a particular day to day activity on the other case now the focus is on the resistivity towards change to the adaptability of regular activities...

Recently I read a book named "Who moved my cheese??" This is really a beautiful and popular book, which describes how we get used to regular day-to-day life, and why we resist changes...and what are the steps, which must be done to make us used to these changes.... Perhaps this book influenced me to write this blog.....

But what I feel is "Changes remain as changes as long we get accustomed to it..."

So lets try to get accustomed to them.... How??

The change(s) brings us to a new situation, which was not expected, new problem or new solution, which we ever thought of...A new start or a blunt end, which we never planned.... An expected happiness or unexpected sorrow....

Incase if the change brings us all on the positive side lets learn what made it a success, why is it a positive and try to implement the same strategy in all forthcoming days??
Incase it brings thing on the negative side then also lets learn and analyze what made it negative and how to avoid in the future...

All these analysis would finally end up in knowing our strength and weakness; we will improve our strength and try to reduce our weakness....

Of course this process is not that much simple to be done in a fortnight...We must even get accustomed to this kind of analysis of problems and changes :), Practice makes a man perfect...So lets start practicing this as soon as possible....

But as the saying goes "If u don’t strive hard to get what u like u will be forced to like what u get..." This also is a saying indirectly implying change...Try to have a voluntary and an expected change towards a positive direction or u would be forced for an eventual unexpected change...

What’s this...I have used the word "change" too much.... I hate this word now :( SOMEBODY HELP ME FROM THIS "CHANGE"

Titanic Lyrics....

2005-06-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

Its really long since i posted something in here....
Last week was heavy with work,lots of changes in specifications etc...So didnt find time to write much ...
So im jus posting the lyrics of my one of the favourite songs...

Titanic-My heart will go on and on

Every night in my dreams
I see you. I feel you.
That is how I know you go on.

Far across the distance
And spaces between us
You have come to show you go on.

Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on

Love can touch us one time
And last for a lifetime
And never let go till we're gone

Love was when I loved you
One true time I hold to
In my life we'll always go on

Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on

There is some love that will not
go away

You're here, there's nothing I fear,
And I know that my heart will go on
We'll stay forever this way
You are safe in my heart
And my heart will go on and on

A Blog in 15 mins...

2005-05-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

Ooops! The time is 7:30 morning and jus now woke up from bed like a lazy cat..Didnt even brush my teeth...Usual life of software engineer..Late nite working and enjoyable morning sleeps...

Oh well i have to be @ work at 8:45 maximum...I need to start my preparations from 7:45...Fixed my target to write this blog in another 15mins..Think i can make it, its just 7:35 now..I have ten mins to go...

The ongoing week seems to be intreasting but with same kind of work round n round, with lots of debugging,coding,error fixing..deploying in local server ...deploying in main server..deploying in clients server....ftp transfers...Low bandwidth issues...Null pointer exceptions..Provider not found exceptions...Silly bugs are the worst night mares of a programmer...And fixing a silly but at times wud cost another 4-5 valuable bugs.. :-)

And wow its still 7:40,I have another 5 mins to go..Well its long since i wrote something in my blog i was actually looking for time to write something..But alas! i didnt find some precious time..So im blogging in 15 mins....I just wrote wat ever came to my mind...Yes a couple of techy terms to prove tat im a Java Developer ;-) ,Oh yes its 7:42..I need to stop writing this blog n publish it...

I dont see any valuable content in this blog...But still this is a 15 mins blog...

Im happy i achieved my target :-)

"Programmers are to Debug and not get Bugged........"

Lost + Found

2005-04-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Normally this is the phrase we say for things we had lost and we find it again. It’s a usual thing we feel, we don’t know the worth of the things we possess unless we lose them or if there's a situation such that we miss them. And incase we find them again, we would be cherishing them till the life ends.

Also, Theres a popular inference that when you love something, nothing can prevent you from reaching it and the vice versa. Even this suits of living things and non living things too (which we love).

Likewise, I too had(have) a friendship which I liked and cherished, It started unexpectedly as much things in life happen, But continued steadily for almost about two years with a very good understanding. Things changed as the time passed, I don't know whether it was us or it was life which made me feel moving away from her.

But as life teaches most things in hard way, I learnt to accept it as it comes, I felt bad for some time but later on it was okay for me.

On the day of my convocation recently something unexpected happened, we went to college at 2:00 pm after usual roam around, and the convocation went on well. We were to leave around 8:30pm,We came to know that college buses are arranged to drop us, I dropped my bag in the bus which goes to K.K.Nagar, There were hardly 6 people in the bus so I thought I can meet some of my friends and talk sometime since it was long time since we met.

While I was standing outside the bus, I saw some body coming towards me, It was my friend, The friend whom I thought I had lost, She was having the usual smile in her face, We started on with usual "Hi",But her speech sounded matured, I don’t know it might be because we talked after long time I felt so, It was though I didn’t talk to her for a long time I come to know about her through friends circle, Now she was working for well known MNC in Chennai, She told me she was put in main frames, We exchanged some thoughts and talks :-),At last when we were about to leave I got her official mail ID,This is was the thing that lead me know that I found my lost friend again.

I mailed her the next morning, Yes I wasn’t expecting a reply…But wow! a lightening reply, I was amazed at the same time happy that she has replied me, We started sending emails to each other, At this moment I realized that she was my old friend, She hasn’t changed, I had a doubt might be it was me who had mistaken her......I soon sent her my blog URL, She was busy the first day I sent it...Later, after a day I reminded her again, In spite of her busy schedule she read it and sent me the feedback, Yes…She hasn’t changed, She was my same old friend, This mail confirmed me that :-),I was contented and happy....I’m happy that I found what I had thought I lost.

I lost it, it was a pain, I found it, it was a pleasure....Something’s seems to be lost in life. But they are actually not, we might know it once we find it again...But after finding it we will never lose it again at any cost.

Always complex problems have simple solutions......

2005-04-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

It was about a month ago I was put in to new mobile project that landed in Cygnus, chennai.We were to develop a web application accessible thro mobile devices.

Well it was my long time dream come true....Mobile devices...J2ME...I was really kind of happy n excited about the project.

Later on we were explained the functionality by our PL we were to develop those applications different kind of Emulators (Emulators are nothing but tools to simulate the particular service providers mobile device) and also a site.

Basically the team consisted of three people excluding my PL, A guy who was 2.5 yrs experienced other girl with 1.5 years experienced and finally the junior most me. We were given 3 weeks time for R&D on Emulators API packages etc.The difficult part of it was that the emulators interface was all in Japanese and even the javadoc was in Japanese :-)) we had to translate each n everything and then go on..Well it was like I was in a maze.

We managed some how to learn the First Emulator one of the Service providers. Well it was an easy task coz the documentation of that particular emulator was in English...

The next week also was lil not tat tough..We managed to study about the second emulator also...Well I was happy that I found and taught other two in my team how to build and run a project in the emulator using the ant builds :-).I was also satisfied that I was able to explore most of the unknown parts of this emulator.

We had the next week ahead, we were to study about the third one, As usual our system admin helped me install the tool kit. I was happy that I was able to start the tool kit without any errors and exceptions.Well, this emulator was little different from the other two we had two kind of tools inside it. One was to build the codes and other to run the code in the simulated environment.

It took us almost one day to bring up the Build tool, We were not even aware that there was a build tool..Later some one accidentally we invoked a .jar file (A collection of class files similar to .exe file),usssh! it opened up the builder tool like Aladdin's magic lamp.

Next came the difficult part, we were not able to build a single template java file..Not even the example codes which the emulator has in its installation itself, I managed to find out that the JDK's and J2ME's paths was all hard coded in the build tools JAR files, I found out an interface to change the hard coded values and changed it, but still it gave me build time errors, Like the builder was not able to identify even the basic java packages and the methods in side them which were already included in the class path. I was looking about clearing these errors for about a day.

Finally I planned to extract the jar file of the build tool, change the class file through a decompiler and repack it in the jar. So I started my work the next day I unpacked the jar I some how managed to find out the class file in which the environment variables were hard coded and I changed it compiled it, Repackaged the jar file. I thought I did something the best.

With my own pride I started the build tool, loaded the java files and started the build...to my surprise same errors again, I was scratching my head. Wondering how come things can't turn up even after doing such a thing...

I was trying to do all things to solve the issue for about two days, Finally I had no other go other than to go and ask my PL for help coz all the three of us were facing the problem.

The next day morning I went to and told the issue, He asked wat are the solutions I tried I told him all that I did, He was chuckling and said "I think u are doing too much of R&D, basically there must b some simple way to this”, I laughed in myself and thought after even changing the class files it didn’t work, How come there can be a simple way???

After half an hour he called me to help him installation of the tool kit in which I had the problem, I was proud that I installed it for him, I also taught him how to build and run, He created a new project copied the sample code in it and build it...Hurray to my happiness even he got the same errors..

He thought for two mins, Googled to find out about the errors, Google didn’t help much.

Later he unzipped the entire JAR file in J2sdk, jre and found out in which package the method comes and added in the class path. I was wondering, I was very sure it wont work..Finally he was ready for the next build...I was in my own world thinking about class files, jar files etc...

He clicked on the "build" button...

It took about 80 seconds finally we saw the words "Build Successful...."

I was in full surprise...raising my eyebrows...He chuckled at me and said the magic words of advice..."Just try to understand one thing, Even in life and in software field, Most of the complex problems have simple solutions" saying this he chuckled at me.

I gave him a blank smile and returned to my room. I was wondering whether it was his experience or his way of problem solving, I consoled my self saying that it would have been coz of his experience...But wat he said was the truth...Often there would be simpler solutions for complex problems...

The thing we get excited too much about the problem which makes us think too much, if for a second or a two we remain calm n focused sure we would be able to find the solution, if not the solution at least the path that leads to the solution...