Why would a developer become a manager

A rant by a lady called Katie Lucas in a discussion thread ...

------------------------------------ START POST -------------------------------------------------

"Why would you want a great developer to become a manager in the first
place?"

Well, this particular developer is becoming a manager for the
following reason:

Job requirements for engineers have an alphabet soup
attached to them. I've been rejected for jobs because the version of Sybase I
last used is too old, and this is for a role where SQL isn't even the core
requirement. The SQL standard hasn't changed, but agents can't figure that out -
they just want people who've used the latest version of Sybase.

I get
turned down for UNIX dev roles because the version of VB I've used isn't the
latest -- because they add a VB background to all the dev position requirements,
and it's got the be the latest version of VB.

I've just got bored of
having my technical skills outdated every six months. If I take my eye off the
ball and Microsoft announces a technology and I don't immediately ram it into my
CV or pick the wrong job, a year later I'm near unemployable.

I'm fed up
of my career being this bizarre stamp collecting exercise where I get judged on
how many of the acronyms I've been near lately and not whether I've gained any
deep experience in anything.

Frankly, I'm getting too old to play this
stupid game anymore. No-one wants to hire a software engineer with a decade of
experience to start work in C#. They'll train 2 year experienced people to use
C#, but if you've got more experience than that, you better show up with
experience in C# because any other experience you have is irrelevant.

I'm
tired of my entire experience being torn up and thrown away every couple of
years because agents and HR departments can't figure out that a developer who
can write C++ can also write C# and Java with very little training -- but what
can you expect? These are guys who think Visual C++ isn't the same language as
C++.


I looked at being a tech writer. I quite like writing -- I've
got a background in creative writing, it's something I quite like, and I've done
tech writing around IT projects before. Unfortunately, although I've written
stuff and studied writing and so on, I'm not qualified to be a tech writer
because the version of PageMaker I last used is too old... I suddenly have these
visions of people saying to a re-incarnated Dickens "Look, you've only used
quills. What the hell kind of writer are you? We're only considering people with
experience with Biros version 4 or above."

I've noticed that things like
"Project manager" experience doesn't get thrown away in the same way. No-one
says "Oh, but that was a year ago. We manage projects COMPLETELY differently
now. That experience doesn't count", whereas they do with, say, SQL. It's like
SQL is a whole new langauge with each version of Oracle.

Apparently,
being a successful software engineer currently means that you pick a tech, ram
some experience on your CV and then bail after a couple of years before that
becomes "old tech". Every couple of years you need to pick a technology (which
probably hasn't actually shipped at that stage) and bet on it. And you must bet
right every time.

You never gain deep experience because that would mean
missing an acronym off your CV and who knows when you'd need the
acronym.

I've been offered two jobs; one will get me a PM background. One
will get me a bundle of technologies. The latter is a good role, but how can I
tell if those technologies will leave me employable in two years time? They
might be completely outdated by then and useless and irrelevant like my
experience with SQL on Oracle 8.

It'll get me a couple of years of Java,
for example. But how can I tell if Java will still be an employable skill in
2007? I mean, I've got Java at the moment, but no hope of a job using it,
because I don't also have J2EE and anyway the Java I did was 1.1 and everyone's
after people with experience in newer versions...

Apparently I have no
worthwhile experience to show for 10 years in the business because everything's
the wrong version or doesn't have the right condiments or is just a tool no-one
uses anymore. Any actual background I've got in things like "being an engineer
who gets software written" is irrelevant. It's like assessing a builder on
whether they've used Black and Decker tools and not on whether their houses are
still standing. Or like assessing Dickens' writing skills by the fact he used
quills and not biros.


Soft skills like PM don't get outdated by FUD
from Microsoft. They don't come with version numbers which can drift out of
date.

Really, they're the only alternative if you're the sort of person
who can't assume you'll bet on the "right" technology every two years for the
rest of your life.

So this developer is becoming a manager just so that I
can start building an experience history to remain employable with, because I'm
fed up of fighting hard to keep even a couple of years of "relevant" background
on my CV.




[As a complete side note, reading the job pages in
the paper I came across an advert for a "housing policy officer". Now, bear in
mind 'm used to adverts which say "Reqd Skills; C++, UNIX, Windows, VB, MFC,
ASP, STL, ATL, Multithreaded, C#, .net, CVS, ClearCase <etc>"

This
one said "You should have a higher-second or first degree and  a track record of
generating effective housing policies."

Wow. Pay was pretty much a match
for being a software engineer.]


------------------------------------ END POST -------------------------------------------------

Original post: Katie's rant

The Universal Packing List

A site that generates a packing list for you depending on what type of journey you are taking, how many days you will stay, is it an international trip, etc.

The Universal Packing List

Find source code online

Programming is a waste, do only copy-paste.

This site allows you to find source code in many languages to "use" in your project.

Link: http://www.krugle.com/

Movie Review: Lady in the Water

Movie Review: Lady in the Water

I saw a movie recently --> M. Night Shyamalan's "Lady in the Water". Here's my review:

Summary: Utterly disappointing.

M. Night Shyamalan's graph continues it's downward spiral. With this movie, Shyamalan reaches a new low. The story tries to combine thrill with fantasy, and fails completely on both accounts. All throughout the movie you keep on waiting for something to trigger it into becoming a gripping tale. The trigger never comes.

The start of the movie has a hint of a message. We are told that there exists a great Blue World (the sea). People there live in harmony, whereas our world (land) lives in conflict. We have forgotten the lessons of love, beauty, peace, etc. And the Blue World will remind us.

The reminder / message never comes throughout the movie.

The central character of the movie is the messenger from the Blue World. All that this lady does is look incredibly pale (I guess because she was underwater from birth). She stares vacantly at everyone (where am I?).
On land she is clad only in a shirt that she gets from the guy who discovers her. She constantly rushes under the shower to stay under water (homesick?). She refuses to wear anything below the waist ( I guess that is the message that we have forgotten on land :-) ).

The sad part is that the story had potential. It could have been made into a good film. But it ends up as a wasted opportunity.

All in all, see it only if someone gives you free tickets (even then it may not be worthwhile).

The Most Important Software Innovations

A list of some well-known and some not-so-well-known computer science/technology innovations.
Nice reading...

Link: The Most Important Software Innovations

Excel shortcut keys

A pretty good list of all shortcuts in Microsoft Excel.

Link: Excel Keyboard Shortcut Keys. Hot keys shortcuts

The online museum of online museums

A site that lists all the museums that have an online presence.

Link: Coudal Partners

10 quotes by Winston Churchill

There are many more, but these 10 are my favourites:

1. "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."
   

2. Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you
   are drunk.”
   Churchill: “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.”

3. "The Americans will always do the right thing... after they've exhausted all the alternatives."
   

4. "Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones."

5. "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing has
   happened."

6. "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” ( Reference to World War II
   )

7. "We are a small island but we are not a small people."

8. “Never, never, never, never give up.”

9. "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

10. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

Deadly Poisons, Ingested or Inhaled

A list of the top 10 poisons that work by ingestion or inhaling.

Note: just posting this as information. I am not responsible if some weirdo misuses this information.

Link: Wired 14.08: START

Performancing for Firefox

I use this, so I am advertising for it. Simple.

This is a great Firefox extension for bloggers. Makes blogging really easy. You can drag and drop elements from websites onto the blog entry as well. Works with multiple blogging sites (any site that supports the protocol).

Link: http://performancing.com/

Concentration

An article that explains many things regarding concentration such as:

1. Poor concentration
2. Your body / health and concentration
3. Maintaining concentration
4. Tips
   

Link: Concentration

How to Find What You Love to Do

How to Find What You Love to Do

A nice article that shows you the steps to change your job if you really are not meant to be in the one that you are currently in.

Link: How to Find What You Love to Do

Customizing Mozilla Firefox

Customizing Mozilla Firefox

Make Firefox do a lot of useful things by adding extensions that suit you.

Very nice article. Detailed list of useful extensions.

Link: Mozilla Firefox - Have it Your Way!

Biomotion lab

See the demo of a person walking under various conditions. Flash movie. Well done.

BioMotionLab1.8

Take your electronic goods apart

A site that shows you how to dissect electronic goods. They don't show how to put it back together, though.

Disclaimer: Don't blame me if you can't put your goods back together :-).



Link: Take It Apart dot net

Doctors' / Medical slang

A lot of terms collected from docs in the US and UK .. some are funny.

Doctors' Slang, Medical Slang and Medical Acronyms, Veterinary Slang, Veterinary Acronyms

95 Theses of Geek Activism

A list by a guy called Devanshu about what geeks should do ....

http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2006/07/23/95-theses-of-geek-activism/

Knowing where to tap ...

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster.

He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do.
After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life.

He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"

So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer .. $ 1.00

Knowing where to tap...... $ 9999.00

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.

India struggles to catch China

An article that shows how far we have to go before we catch up with China.  Sad but true.
God willing, we will get there. But there are many miles to go .....

BBC NEWS |  India struggles to catch China

How much caffeine is present in ... ?

A list of most commonly drunk caffeine products and the amount of caffeine therein.
Coffee, grande (16 oz.) Starbucks has 550 mg. WOW !! Might as well take caffeine intravenously  :-).

Nutrition Action Healthletter - Caffeine: The Caffeine Corner

Logarithmic image transformation

An algorithm to transform images. This can be used in a graphics program.

I don't understand the maths part behind it at all, but the effects look neat.

Link: Logarithmic Image Transformation

Top 10 free and cheap productivity tools

10 tools to make your life easier and more productive.

Top 10 free and cheap productivity tools

GUID Creation on Windows

GUID Creation on Windows

Information on how to create GUIDs on Windows, in case the need arises.

Functions:

1. UuidCreate() -->
MSDN link for UuidCreate()

2. UuidCreateSequential() -->

MSDN link for UuidCreateSequential()

3. CoCreateGuid() (COM) --> MSDN link for CoCreateGuid()

4. EXE to generate GUIDs : guidgen.exe. Microsoft link for downloading GUIDGen

5. Site that generates GUIDs for you: http://www.guidgen.com/

6. GUID structure explained: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.guid.aspx

Biomedical Image Awards 2006

Some beautiful snaps of microscopic structures of various living organisms.

Link: Biomedical Image Awards 2006 - Gallery

Science Facts that People Get Wrong

Some interesting facts that are misunderstood.

E.g.
Pressure cookers force heat* into the food, cooking it quicker.

Wrong --> Heating water under pressure raises its boiling point so that the
steam is at a temperature greater than 100C. It is the higher temperature that
causes the food to cook quicker.

Read on ...    Science Facts that People Get Wrong

Five Steps To Kicking Off A New Software Project

5 great tips on what to do (and what not to do) when you have a new project to start off.
Worth reading.

Link: Technology As If People Mattered : Weblog

Avoid Taking Undeserved Credit

Integrity in the workplace involves a lot of things. One of them is NOT taking credit for something that you have not done (or not contributed enough to take credit for it). Read on if you are interested ...

Integrity Series: Avoid Taking Undeserved Credit · The Retrospector

Top 10 Ways to Motivate Geeks

Practical tips on how to motivate geeks in your company. Worth reading.

Top 10 Ways to Motivate Geeks · The Retrospector

Invisibility shields moving into the realm of possibility

It may be possible to have invisibility shields. Scientists are exploring ways and means of achieving this goal.
Note: They are nowhere near having a practical device as of today.

Out of Sight: Science News Online, July 15, 2006

How to help someone use a computer

Nice tips for computer-literate folks on helping people who are laymen when it comes to computers.

How to help someone use a computer

The most dangerous road on Earth

Bolivia’s Yungas
Road is officially the most hazardous on earth. And
all this while I thought India had the most dangerous
roads!!

Pictures of Yungas Road, Bolivia

[India's National Anthem] Are we still singing for the Empire?

One accusation against India's National Anthem ("Jana Gana Mana") is that it was written in praise of an British King, George V. This controversy refuses to die down. The article below refutes these allegations and categorically states that Rabindranath Tagore would never have written a song in praise of a British Emperor.


Link:
India: Are we still singing for the Empire? by Pradip Kumar Datta


Article reproduced verbatim below:

www.sacw.net | September 8, 2004

[India's National Anthem] Are we still singing for the Empire?

by Pradip Kumar Datta *

One of the many targets of Sadhvi Rithambara's infamous hate cassette -- which did so much to provoke feelings of resentment against Muslims -- was the national anthem. She described it as an act of 'gaddari' (treachery). Hindutva allegations against the Jana Gana Mana are not new. But they have begun to circulate anew with fresh intensity with the growth of the Hindutva brigade in the 80's. And have entered the conversational common sense which has begun to treat these as if they were established evidence. Quite recently a friend of mine abroad alerted me to pro-Hindutva websites such as www.freeindia.org that had convinced his otherwise secular students that the anthem had been originally composed for Emperor George V. Even more recently, another friend reported that she found herself isolated in a ladies party in Kolkata when she tried to defend the anthem from these charges.


The jingoism of the anti-Jana Gana Mana campaign is based on an appropriate irony. The charge actually rests on false evidence given by the pro-British press. The song was first sung in a session of the Congress in 1911. This session had decided to felicitate George V since he had announced the abrogation of the partition of Bengal, thereby conceding the success of the Swadeshi agitation, the first modern anti-colonial movement that had started in 1905. The day after the session the nationalist Indian papers normally -- and accurately -- reported that a Tagore composition had been sung. The Bengalee -- along with other Indian newspapers as well as the report of the Indian National Congress - reported that it was a "patriotic song". The following year the song was published as "Bharat -- Vidatha". A contemporary commentator in the vernacular Bharati described the song as one in "Praise of the Dispenser of human Destiny, whoÖappears in every age." He probably came closest to capturing its spirit. This song was to later become known as Jana Gana Mana.



The confusion about the song was stirred up by the ineptness of the pro-British Anglo-Indian
press. Their inefficiency was not surprising (The Sunday Times once ascribed the authorship of Bande Mataram to Tagore and described Jana Gana Mana as a Hindi song!) On this occasion the Anglo-Indian press -- led by The Englishman - almost uniformly reported that a Tagore song had been sung to commemorate George V's visit to India. The reports were based on understandable ignorance since the Anglo-Indian press had neither the linguistic abilities nor the interest to be accurate.

Actually, two songs that had been sung that day. The Jana Gana Mana had been followed by a Hindi song composed specially for George V by Rambhuj Chaudhary. There was no real connection between the composition of the Jana Gana Mana and George V, except that the song was sung -- not written - at an event which also felicitated the king. The Anglo-Indian press [luckily for Hindutva enthusiasts and unfortunately for secularists!] heard Indian songs much in the way they looked at foreign faces: they were all the same!

Initially the controversy seemed a non-starter. Contemporaries obviously found it hard to associate Tagore with servility. Tagore was known for this opposition to the government. Indeed, shortly after the Congress session the government passed a circular that declared Shantiniketan to be a "place altogether unsuitable for the education of Government officers" and threatened punitive measures against officers who sent their children there to study.
Undoubtedly helped by these measures which shored up Tagore's nationalist reputation, the song steadily acquired wide acceptability among nationalists in all parts of the country - especially after its translation into English as "The morning song of India" by the poet in Madras. In a survey made just before the poetís death in 1941 at Mumbai, respondents
felt Jana Gana Mana to have the strongest "national characteristics" although Bande Mataram was found superior on some other criteria. The dirt thrown by the pro-British press seemed to have been completely wrung out when Netaji Bose's Indian National Army adopted it as the National Anthem; this was followed by Gandhi's declaration in 1946 that "the song has found a place in our national life": that it was "also like a devotional hymn".


But it was not as if it was all smooth sailing for the story of Jana Gana Mana's popularity. The first round of controversy -- this time by the Indians themselves - had been stoked in 1937. But it became a much more general one from the late 1940's when a debate broke out over what was to be the National Anthem. A section within the Congress wanted the Bande Mataram, a song that was popularly associated with the national movement. But Bande Mataram was controversial since its invocation of the nation as a Goddess went against Islamic theology which forbade the worship of any God other than Allah. Also the Bande Mataram had been successfully converted into a sign of communal antagonism by Hindu communalists (with the enthusiastic participation of their Muslim counterparts who regarded the song as a horrible provocation) and even chanted it as a slogan in riots.

In the 1930's, a Congress sub-committee had short-listed some "national" songs that could be sung together with or instead of Bande Mataram. It was then proposed (on Tagore's initiative) that the first two stanzas of Bande Mataram could be sung. But this catholicity was not felt to be feasible after independence. Occasions involving foreign diplomatic missions or the Defence forces required that a single "National Anthem" be played by a band as a signature of the country. The Constituent Assembly was deputed to select the anthem. It was in the ensuing
lobbying to knock Jana Gana Mana out of reckoning, that outworn and salacious bits of colonial misinformation about the song began to be recirculated.



Jana Gana Mana was chosen as anthem in 1950 over Bande Mataram as well as Iqbal's Sare Jahan Se Accha - although Bande Mataram was given "equal status". An important reason was that Bande Mataram could not be played by bands. Additionally Jana Gana Mana enjoyed an international reputation. It had been greatly appreciated in the United Nations at New York where it was first played as an orchestral arrangement in 1947. Many said that it was superior to most national anthems in the world. Within the country the overwhelming majority of the
provinces supported its nomination.



But there is also an underlying reason that is really responsible for the controversy popping up at regular intervals. The words of Bande Mataram feature India as a homogeneous Hindu nation. Jana Gana Mana evokes the country as composed of a multiplicity of regions and communities united in a prayer to a universal lord. After all, Bande Mataram was composed by a colonial administrator who could only visualize the nation in Hindu terms: religious identity was the only available idiom for conceptualizing the nation then. In contrast, Tagore had seen the riots that broke up the Swadeshi movement and had divined the obvious: religious nationalism easily divided anti-colonial struggles. Jana Gana Mana can be seen as one of the fruits of Tagore's search to find an alternate inclusivist definition for the nation. Incidentally, it was one of the harbingers of a decade that was to see Hindu and Muslim politicians draw together. In short, the two songs embody different ideas, histories and aspirations of the country.

In fairness, the last word on the affair should really be given to the poet himself (incidentally he had composed the music for Bande Mataram). Answering a friend's query about the origins of the Jana Gana Mana in 1937, Tagore said that a loyalist friend had requested him to write a song in praise of the King. He had felt anger at his friends presumption about his loyalism. It was this anger that led him to compose Jana Gana Mana. He had written a song to a superior authority, the "Dispenser of India's destiny". Tagore concluded. "That great Charioteer of man's destiny in age after age could not by any means be George V or George VI or any George. Even my 'loyal' friend realized this; because, however powerful his loyalty to the King, he was not wanting in intelligence." I may add here that we normally sing the first verse alone: the third verse of the song refers explicitly to the eternal lord.



Tagore said that he felt too pained by the unjustness of the charge to come out with a public refutation. Perhaps he was wrong. He could have considered the issue of survival. Not just of his public reputation. But also the survival of self-confidence in some of his future citizens who believe that they venerate their masters fifty years after independence. And that they can sing songs to a King, dead for an even longer period.


(Readers interested in more information may look at P.Sen's India's National Anthem)


* Pradip Kumar Datta teaches at Delhi University.

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Sleep

Some interesting tid bits about sleep.
Most important one: Change your mattress after a maximum period of 10 years.

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Sleep

How to concentrate on writing

Tips on how to concentrate when you are writing a book or something important. Common sense tips, but then again, common sense is NOT common :-).

Bad Language / How to concentrate on writing

Warriors of the Net

A great animated movie (made in 1999) by Sony Ericsson that shows how TCP/IP makes the internet work. Definitely worth watching.
Only problem is the file size (72 MB).

Warriors of the Net clips

Spiderman 3 teaser

A preview of a movie that I am waiting for eagerly - Spiderman 3 !!

YouTube - spiderman 3 teaser

The Laugh Song

Completely inane !! Yet made me laugh. Those 2 girls are so identical .....

YouTube - The Laugh Song

Free Download Manager

Download manager software - free and nice !! I use it personally, so I thought I should advertise for them ...



Free Download Manager

Top 10 Web Developer Libraries

Some nice libraries that you can use in your web applications ...

Top 10 Web Developer Libraries - Cameron Olthuis

Great Limericks

Winners of the APS contest for limericks - some nice ones.

Limerick Contest Finalists & Winners

Confucius says ... (Doctrine of the mean)

Excerpts taken from "The Doctrine of the Mean" by Confucius:

"Sincerity is the way of Heaven. The attainment of sincerity is
the way of men. He who possesses sincerity is he who, without an effort,
hits what is right, and apprehends, without the exercise of thought;-he
is the sage who naturally and easily embodies the right way. He who attains
to sincerity is he who chooses what is good, and firmly holds it
fast.


"To this attainment there are requisite the extensive study of
what is good, accurate inquiry about it, careful reflection on it, the
clear discrimination of it, and the earnest practice of
it.


"The superior man, while there is anything he has not studied,
or while in what he has studied there is anything he cannot understand,
Will not intermit his labor. While there is anything he has not inquired
about, or anything in what he has inquired about which he does not know,
he will not intermit his labor. While there is anything which he has not
reflected on, or anything in what he has reflected on which he does not
apprehend, he will not intermit his labor. While there is anything which
he has not discriminated or his discrimination is not clear, he will not
intermit his labor. If there be anything which he has not practiced, or
his practice fails in earnestness, he will not intermit his labor. If another
man succeed by one effort, he will use a hundred efforts. If another man
succeed by ten efforts, he will use a thousand.


"Let a man proceed in this way, and, though dull, he will surely
become intelligent; though weak, he will surely become
strong."


...


Sincerity is that whereby self-completion is effected, and its
way is that by which man must direct himself.


Sincerity is the end and beginning of things; without sincerity
there would be nothing. On this account, the superior man regards the attainment
of sincerity as the most excellent thing.



Full story at:

The Internet Classics Archive | The Doctrine of the Mean by Confucius

New System Blocks Unwanted Video & Still Photography

Paparazzi beware !! You can be blocked !! (And that would be a good thing, too...)

Newswise | New System Blocks Unwanted Video & Still Photography

Top 10 Strangest Luxury Gadgets

TechEBlog » Top 10 Strangest Luxury Gadgets

Ever wondered what the idle rich can buy with their idle money? Go check these gadgets out (and feel sorry for your poor existence )...

Command line reference for Oracle, Windows, Linux and OS X

SS64.com

Very useful if you deal with the command line a lot ...

Top Ten Accidental Discoveries

Top Ten Accidental Discoveries

A list of many discoveries made by accident that have helped make this world a better place. Well, the list does include popsicles, but I think that has made this world better, too ;-).

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

YouTube - Star Trek vs. Star Wars

Great video - what happens when the USS Enterprise meets the Death Star?
Really well made ...

50 Weight Loss Tips ~ Chris Pirillo

Nice, practical tips on losing weight (and keeping it off).

Shayari from Khushwant Singh's autobiography


"The Dawn", a Pakistani newspaper, has an article that contains a lot of Shayari from Khushwant Singh's autobiography.

Note: I am not endorsing the contents of the entire website. I just liked this article and that's about it.


Entire article posted below:

---------- START ARTICLE ----------------------

Is Khushwant Singh a ‘hypocrite and a liar?’


KHUSHWANT Singh likes to quote from Urdu and Persian poetry in his autobiography, Truth, Love and a Little Malice. He begins with Hakeem Makhmoor in his prologue:

I told no one the story of my life

It was something I had to spend;

I spent it.

He does not give the lines in the original Urdu.

Then in the chapter on Lahore, he gives us these oft-quoted lines:

Paida hua vakeel toa Iblees nay kaha

Allah nay mujhey sahib-i-aulaad kar diya.

I have heard these lines thus:

Paida hooay vakeel toa Shaitan ne kaha

Lo aaj mein bhi sahib-i-aulad ho gaya.

No matter what, Singh has got the second line all mixed up.

In his interview with Tikka Khan, he quotes the general as having given him the following lines:

Shauq-i-tool-o-peych iss zulmat qadeh mein heh agar

Bengalee ki baat sun aur Bengalan kay baal dekh.

He translates them thus:

If you like to add length to a story, put a twist in its tail,

Hear a Bengali talk (endlessly) and gaze upon his woman’s long hair.

Again,

Nishan-i-mard-i-momin ba toa goyam

Choon marg aayad, tabassum bar lab-i-ost.

(You ask me about the signs of a man of faith

When death comes to him, he has a smile on his lips).

Iqbal comes next:

Jahaan mein ahle imaan soorat-i-Khurshid jeetay hein

Idhar doobey, udhar nikley; udhar doobey, idhar nikley.

These lines have been quoted so often by so many that they have lost all meaning. They don’t sound even trite now.

Saadi comes in handy, too:

Sana-i-khud bakhud guftan

Na zebad mard-i-daana ra

Choon zan pistan-i-khud malal

Kuja lazzat shavad baqi?

Singh’s translation:

It does not behove a man of wisdom

to use his tongue in praise of himself

What pleasure does a woman beget

If with her own hands she rubs her breasts?

Urdu again: Woh waqt bhi dekha tareekh ki ghariyon ne

Lamhon ne khata ki thi

Sadiyon ne sazaa payee.

(The ages of history have recorded times

When for an error made in a few minutes

Centuries had to pay the price).

Then he advises a certain Pakistani minister how to face the thekedars of Islam:

Mullah, gar asar heh dua mein

Toa masjid hila ke dikha

Gar nahin, toa doa ghoont pi

Aur masjid ko hilta dekh.

(Mullah, if there is power in your prayer,

Let me see you shake the mosque!

If not, take a couple of swigs of liquor

And see the mosque shake on its own).

Khushwant Singh quotes from Ustad Daman, too. But since some of his lines (Khushwant’s, not Daman’s), are suspect, I’ll let them pass.

Iqbal again:

Dhoondta phirta hoon mein aye Iqbal apney aap ko

Aap hi goya musafir, aap hi manzil hoon mein.

(O Iqbal, I go about everywhere looking for myself

As if I was the wayfarer as well as the destination).

An unnamed Urdu poet is then quoted:

Too dil mein toa aata heh

Samajh mein nahin aata

Bas jan gaya teri pehchaan yehi heh

(You come into my heart

But my mind cannot comprehend you

I understand this is the only way to know you).

Shaad Azimabadi comes in next:

Suni haqiqat-i-hasti toa darmian se suni

Na ibtada ki khabar heh, na intiha maloom.

(All we have heard of the story of life is its middle;

We know not its beginning, we know not its end).

Singh says that there is “an amusing saying ascribed to the Sikh trading community once settled in Potohar (now in Pakistan), which was known for its adherence to religious ritual as well as its sharp trading practices:

Jhooth vi asin bolney aan

Ghut vi asin tolney aan;

Par Sacchey Padshah

Tera naa vi asin lainey aan.

(We admit we tell lies

We also give short measures;

But O True King of Kings,

We also take your name).

Iqbal yet again:

Khuda tujhe Kisi toofan sey ashna kar dey

Keh terey behr ki maujon mien iztirab nahin (May God bring a storm in your life.

There is no agitation on the waves of your life’s ocean).

In the end, he ascribes a couple of famous Ghalib lines to Iqbal — Rau mein heh rakhsh-i-umar ...

At his age, I suppose he can plead not guilty to seven murder charges and be happily let off. Misquoting Ustad Daman? I am sure the Ustad would have been the first to laugh the matter off. As for mistaking Ghalib for Iqbal, I have known many others to have done so. But I must give a break to Truth, Love and a Little Malice and see what a friend has to say about Khushwant Singh. A. R. Nagori, the painter, calls me a ‘dear friend’. I am honoured, of course, but the letter he has written to me from Karachi has left me not a little sad.

Referring to my piece on Amrita Sher Gil (Dawn, September 16), Nagori says:

“Amrita Sher Gil died on December 6, 1941” and not in September 1939 as ‘conjectured’. As the conjecture was mine and not Khushwant Singh’s, I stand corrected. I will, however, need further evidence on Gil’s death and not merely a statement.

Then Mr Nagori says Amrita Sher Gil died on the “first floor of the Ganga Ram Mansions next to the Dayal Singh Mansions and behind Fazal Din Chemists on The Mall and not on top of the Fazal Din Building.” Mr Nagori says so because he “used to spend some time at 29, Ganga Ram Mansions facing Amrita’s flat.” I plead guilty again. But, as Mr Nagori will appreciate, all this was rather before my time.

Nagori calls Khushwant Singh a “notorious hypocrite and a liar.”

He writes: “Amrita was, like all genuine artists, straightforward (and) blunt in expression”.

Khushwant Singh says in his autobiography: “Politeness was not one of her virtues, she believed in speaking her mind....” Mr Nagori has said almost the same thing. If anything, he has used a stronger word (‘blunt’) than Mr Singh who merely wrote that she (Amrita) “believed in speaking her mind”.

Telling an untruth at 88, anyhow, is a far more forgivable sin (if sin it can be called at all) than the lie direct spoken deliberately with malicious intent.

So, I’ll say this to my friend A.R. Nagori: I don’t know whether Khushwant Singh is a hypocrite or not, but if he is a liar, he is quite the most delightful liar I’ve ever read. As he says in his prologue:

“My only chance of not being forgotten when I am dead and rotten is to write about things worth reading... I have no pretensions to being a craftsman of letters. Having had to meet deadlines for the last five decades, I did not have the time to wait for inspiration, indulge in witty turns of phrase or polish up what I wrote... All said and done, this autobiography is the child of ageing loins. Do not expect too much from it: some gossip, some titillation, some tearing up of reputations, some amusement — that is the best I can offer (emphasis added).

I ask you now: is it the writing of a hypocrite? If it is, I am one of the original hypocrites.

The only thing I don’t like about Khushwant Singh is that he has willed that he be buried rather than cremated. Just imagine!

--------------- END ARTICLE -----------------

Great free online cryptography course .

University of Washington has made the whole Cryptography Course available online for free. All the presentations, videos (mp3, WMV), homework, quizzes etc. are available online.


Course Introduction page, homework assignments:
CSE P 590TU: Practical Aspects of Modern Cryptography, Winter 2006


Lecture slides, homework solutions and video archives:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/csep590/06wi/lectures/

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. From MIT.

The oops list

Pictures and clips of things gone badly wrong - definitely worth a visit.

The Scrutinizer

The Scrutinizer is a service that allows you to analyze, assess and validate any link using various tools and testers on the web.

Why use it?

Rather than creating direct links to various validators and link analyzers, one link can be used to submit to all of them. It simplifies the task of figuring out which application needs what type of URL (Domains only/HTTP/No HTTP) and also saves time and space by freeing up the code from unneccessary URLs.

Random Thoughts from a CTO: 50 Beliefs about Projects

Thoughts about software projects. It feels like part joke, part truth :-).

Geek to Live: Automatically email yourself file backups - Lifehacker

Send backups via email to any web email account. Cool for getting access to files anytime, anywhere.

Sign in to multiple IM accounts on the web - no need to install anything on your desktop.
Some sites mentioned below.

1. eMessenger.net
eMessenger is a web application that enables you to chat with your MSN, AOL and Yahoo buddies without having to install any program or Java applet.


2. Meebo (http://www.meebo.com)
Does the same thing as #1 above. Meebo is a web based IM that lets you log into your IM networks from any computer with a browser and internet connection with no firewall issues.


Oh, and if you still want to install something on your desktop, check out Trillian (http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/) . This single application allows you to sign in to AOL (AIM), Yahoo, ICQ, MSN Messenger and IRC in one shot.

Download of the Day: Stealther Firefox extension - Lifehacker

Browse stealthily in Firefox.

Here's one more

http://www.skattertech.com/2006/05/firefox-private-browsing/

"I Have A Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr.


One of my all-time favorite speeches.

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.


One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.
So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.


This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.


So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.


It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.


The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.


We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.


The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.


We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.


I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.


Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.


I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.


I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.


This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.


When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

BBC falls for 'expert' cabbie's banter - Britain - Times Online

A cab driver is mistakenly cast as Guy Kewney on a TV news program. BBC's latest star - a 'deer in the headlights' baffled cabbie.

See the video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvUuHfT-VaY

Drugs companies 'inventing diseases to boost their profits' - World - Times Online

Snippet from the article:
PHARMACEUTICAL companies are systematically creating diseases in order to sell more of their products, turning healthy people into patients and placing many at risk of harm, a special edition of a leading medical journal claims today.

Always grab the first opportunity .

A young man wished to marry the farmer's beautiful daughter. He went to the farmer to ask his permission.

The farmer looked him over and said,"Son, go stand out in that field. I'm going to release three bulls,one at a time. If you can catch the tail of any one of the three bulls, youcan marry my daughter."

The young man stood in the pasture awaiting the first bull. The barn door opened and out ran the biggest, meanest-looking bull he had ever seen. He decided that one of the next bulls had to be abetterchoice than this one, so he ran over to the side and let the bull pass through the pasture out the back gate.

The barn door opened again.Unbelievable. He had never seen anything so big and fierce in his life.It stood pawing the ground, grunting, slinging slobber as it eyed him.Whatever the next bull was like, it had to be a better choice than thisone. He ran to the fence and let the bull pass through the pasture, out the back gate.

The door opened a third time. A smile came across his face. This was the weakest, scrawniest little bull he had ever seen. This one was his bull. As the bull came running by, he positioned himself justright and jumped at just the exact moment. He grabbed... but the bull had no tail!!

Life is full of opportunities. Some will be easy to take advantage of, some will be difficult.
But once we let them pass (often in hopes of something better), those opportunities may never again be available.

So always grab the first opportunity.

Colbert Roasts Bush 1-3 --> Hilarious video of the White House correspondents' dinner

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIRXur61II

Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN0INDOkFuo

Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJvar7BKwvQ

How Disney re-uses its cartoons

A Russian site that shows how Disney re-uses its cartoons/animations. I don't know Russian, but still the pictures tell the tale. Very interesting ...

How to Become an Early Riser

An article that outlines steps on how to become an early riser. Check it out.

Also by the same guy: How to get up right away when your alarm goes off

Column from PC Magazine: The Great Microsoft Blunder

An article by John Dvorak that calls bundling of the browser into the Windows operating system as the "worst decision" ever by Microsoft.

The Harvard Crimson :: News :: Examples of Similar Passages Between Viswanathan's Book and McCafferty's Two Novels

NEW YORK: A recently published novel by Harvard undergraduate KaavyaViswanathan, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, containsseveral passages that are strikingly similar to books by Megan FMcCafferty -- the 2001 novel Sloppy Firsts and the 2003 novel SecondHelpings.

Prima facie it looks like plagiarism was done - the similarities are too much to ignore ....

Diary of a Non-Obc Man

Got this forwarded email. Hilarious...

An excerpt from Emcee's diary exactly 50 years from now
Ahmedabad, 30 April 2056 : I attended the bash at the IIM-OBC Alumni Association to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the reservation of seats for OBCs (Other Backward Castes) in IIMs. Since I'm not an OBC, I was not supposed to attend, but at present, we MBFCs (Moderately Backward Forward Castes) together with the Non-Scheduled Tribes have a political alliance with the OBCs. We sipped champagne and talked about how so many of us had progressed from reserved seats in the IIMs to reserved jobs to reserved promotions. Unfortunately, the party broke up when a Non-scheduled Tribes faculty member objected to the OBCs dancing with all the pretty girls — he wanted equal opportunities for every caste at each dance. I pointed out that the Non-scheduled Tribes had exceeded the quota of champagne reserved for them. The party ended in a pitched caste battle.

1) May 2056: Today, I became president of the IIM Board of Directors. Under the present rotating presidency system, a member of each caste is made the president by turn. When it was the turn of the MBFCs for president, they had to choose me because I'm the only MBFC on the campus. True, I'm only the campus dhobi, but then every caste must be given an equal opportunity. All those centuries of oppression by the OSBFCs (Only Slightly Backward Forward Castes) and the OFCs (Other Forward Castes) must be rectified. I hope to restore the high standards at IIM — I overheard some foreigners calling it the Indian Institute of Morons, the other day.

2) May 2056: They've announced the cricket team for the series against Australia . I was overjoyed when they chose an MBFC man as captain. But my hopes were dashed when I realised he was a Most Backward Forward Caste and not a Moderately Backward Forward Caste. The selection committee lamented that it was gross discrimination that no member from the Jarowa tribe (the Stone Age tribe in the Andamans) had ever found a place in the Indian cricket team. A squad has since been dispatched to the Andamans to capture a Jarowa tribal to play in the national team. I hope he will improve their performance — they had an innings defeat against the Maldives recently. I would have played myself except for the fact that I lost a leg some years ago when I was in hospital with a toothache and a doctor recruited through the Unscheduled Caste quota extracted my leg instead of my tooth.

3) May 2056: There are too many NFCs (Neo-Forward castes) in the IT business. Under the terms of the Business Reservation Act, their firms will now be taken over by the other castes. I hope they will be able to restore the Indian IT industry back to its former glory. For some unfathomable reason, it has gone down the drain after job reservations were implemented. I went for a movie featuring star actor Mungeri Ram. He may lack teeth, be four-feet-three and have hair growing out of his nose, but this year it's the turn of the EBC-RYs (Extremely Backward Caste-Rural Yokels) to be stars and Mungeri Ram is the best of the lot. I wonder why foreign movies have become so popular.

4) May 2056: A truly great day. We now have an OFBMBC (Other Forward But Moderately Backward Caste) general as the Head of the Armed Forces. I hope he'll be able to win back the territory we lost ever since reservations were implemented in the Army. Since then, the north has been taken by Pakistan, the North-east by China , the east by Bangladesh and the south by Sri Lanka and the Maldives . Only last winter, we lost the war against Bhutan and free India is now limited to the western coastal states. But I'm sure the OFBMBC general will turn the tide.


5) May 2056: My wife and I have been blessed with a bonny daughter. Since my wife's an SBBNSBC (Slightly Backward But Not So Backward Caste), my daughter will be an MBFC-SBBNSBC. I must lobby for reservation for her caste. She's the only member and I'm sure she has a great future.

Fifty Ways to Take Notes » Solution Watch

A lot of useful tools that help you take notes very quickly.

Project Planning Links .

A few good links:

1. CHAOS report (Paper on budget, schedule, and general failures of software projects) : http://standishgroup.com/sample_research/
   
2. Pursuing the Perfect Project Manager : http://www.tompeters.com/col_entries.php?note=005297&year=1991
   
3. Work Breakdown Structure : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_breakdown_structure
   
   
4. Five Worlds (Different types of software projects): http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FiveWorlds.html
   
5. How to give and receive criticism : http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/essay35.htm
6. Tools for organizing thoughts: http://www.ms.lt/ms/projects/toolkinds/organize.html
   
   
7. The art of UI prototyping: http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/essay12.htm
   
8. Conversational Terrorism (WHAT NOT TO DO): http://www.vandruff.com/art_converse.html
   
9. Brand's Pace Law: http://www.edge.org/q2004/page6.html#brand
   
   
10. Saying NO: http://www.ayeconference.com/Articles/Sayingno.html
11. Continuous Integration: http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/continuousIntegration.html
    
12. Painless Bug Tracking: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000029.html
    
    
13. Test-driven development: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_driven_development
    
14. Some essays on doing post-mortems (and other stuff): http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/

How I Work: Bill Gates - Apr. 7, 2006 .

A day in the Office life of Bill Gates (OK, that's a bad pun).

Fast Forward: The world's most modern management is in India - Apr. 14, 2006 .

HCL Technologies in India is doing all it can to keep employees and clients both happy. The 2nd part is done by every company. The 1st part is a pleasant surprise - keep it up, guys !!

Google Watch .

A blog that concentrates only on Google related news. Called - what else? - Google Watch.
Has some interesting info...

Strider URL Tracer with Typo-Patrol .

New Microsoft tool. Excerpts from the site:

When a user visits a Web site, her browser may be instructed to visit other third-party domains without her knowledge. Some of these third-party domains raise security, privacy, and safety concerns. The Strider URL Tracer, available for download, is a tool that reveals these third-party domains, and it includes a Typo-Patrol feature that generates and scans sites that capitalize on inadvertent URL misspellings, a process known as typo-squatting. The tool also enables parents to block typo-squatting domains that serve adult ads on typos of children's Web sites.

The Bong

A hilarious article about Bengalis. Great fun - don't miss this !!

Programmer's File Editor Home Page

Very good free editor. However, it is no longer in development. But it's free, and it's good ...

Startup called Webaroo touts 'Web on a hard drive'

Search without an internet connection. Good idea or will it fizzle out? Only time will tell ....

Creative Contents: A short course in using your digital camera

Nice tutorial. Helpful for people who have just started using digital cameras or for those who want to take better pictures overall.

Self-Reliance : by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This is a very long but fine essay on self-reliance. Find the time to go through it, and you will not be disappointed.

A snippet from the same:

It is only as a man puts off all foreign support, and stands alone, that I see him to be strong and to prevail ...
He who knows that power is inborn, that he is weak because he has looked for good out of him and elsewhere, and so perceiving, throws himself unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly rights himself, stands in the erect position, commands his limbs, works miracles; just as a man who stands on his feet is stronger than a man who stands on his head.

Men Are Just Happier People .

One of my favourite articles. Note: this is not an anti-women posting. Take it in the spirit it is meant - just plain fun.

What do you expect from such simple creatures?

• Your last name stays put.

• The garage is all yours.

• Wedding plans take care of themselves.

• Chocolate is just another snack.

• You can be president

• You can never be pregnant.

• You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.

• You can wear NO T-shirt to a water park.

• Car mechanics tell you the truth.

• The world is your urinal.

• You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.

• You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.

• Same work, more pay.

• Wrinkles add character.

• Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental -- $100.

• People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.

• The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.

• New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.

• One mood --! all the time.

• Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.

• You know stuff about tanks.

• A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.

• You can open all your own jars.

• You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.

• If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

• Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.

• Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.

• You almost never have strap problems in public.

• You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.

• Everything on your face stays its original color.

• The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.

• You only have to shave your face and neck.

• You can play with toys all your life.

• Your belly usually hides your big hips.

• One wallet and one pair of shoes one color for all seasons.

• You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.

• You can "do" your nails with a pocketknife.

• You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache!

• You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 45 minutes.
  
  No wonder men are happier......

Realtime Form Validation Using AJAX

Nice article from Sun about how to do real-time validation of data that can't be validated on the client side & has to be checked on the server (e.g. username already exists). Check it out.

The BlockHole.

A blog by 3 techies from Kolkatta (who incidentally call their city as Calcutta - hmm, I thought it was a unanimous decision to rename the city ...).

Has a large dose of cricket (hence the name). But they do post on other subjects as well. Worth a look ...

Marbles! (skip intro) - Best of Google Video

This is a great video. Those guys have way too much time on their hands, but the end result is great.
BTW, like the title says, skip the intro - the actual video has nothing to do with the introduction.

Spelling poems.

Poems that show the absurdities of English spelling. My favorite one is 'CANDIDATE FOR A PULLET SURPRISE" , which also goes around the net by the name of "Ode to a Spell Checker".

Enterprise Java Community: Application Server Matrix

A very useful matrix from TheServerSide.COM for comparing different Java application servers.

Urville: The Imaginary City

From the site:
--------------
Gilles Trehin is an autistic 28-year-old. Since the age of 12, he has been designing an imaginary city called Urville, named after the “Dumont d’Urville,” a French scientific base in Antarctica. He has created detailed historical, geographical, cultural, and economic descriptions of the city, as well as an absolutely extraordinary set of drawings.

Interesting facts about domain names

Some interesting facts about the domain names already taken.

Procastination

A discussion on procastination :
1. Its characteristics
2. Reasons
3. Steps to overcome it


From the Study Skills Library at California Polytechnic State University.

Enterprise Java Community: An Approach to Web Services Non-Functional Requirements Using WSDL Annotations

An approach of how to have a standards-based manner of customizing WSDL. It also describes the interoperability issues and the best practices for customizing WSDL followed by conclusion and scope of future work.

Enterprise Java Community: BPEL and Java .

A good article on how BPEL and Java can go hand in hand to have a good process-oriented SOA approach / system.

Wired News: A Pretty Good Way to Foil the NSA
Phil Zimmermann's newest encryption software, Zfone, promises to give the most telephone system anyone has ever used.

Prisoner of Redmond: Yet another way Paul Allen Isn't Like You or Me

A very nice article by Robert X. Cringely that details why Paul Allen can definitely be called as a good guy. May there be more like him.

DM's Explanation of Cricket.
A good site for anyone that knows nothing about the game of cricket at all.

Management By Walking Around (MBWA).
A few links on this topic - will help you if you are a manager, going to become one, or just generally when dealing with people (not only in the office)
1. MBWA Checklist (20 points)
2. Does MBWA still work? --> Article
3. MBWA practices and principles

"People leave managers not companies"

A forwarded article which I found very good, interesting, thoughtful and probably true.

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE ORGANISATIONS?
Every company normally faces one common problem of high employee turnout ratio. People are leaving the company for better pay, better profile or simply for just one reason' pak gaya '. This article might just throw some light on the matter...... After reading it' I realised how true the subject line of this mail is.

Early this year, Arun, an old friend who is a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer. He had heard a lot about the CEO of this company, charismatic man often quoted in the business press for his visionary attitude.

The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office, and the very best technology, even a canteen that served superb food. Twice Arun was sent abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined. "It's a real high working with such cutting edge technology." Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Arun walked out of the job.


He has no other offer in hand but he said he couldn't take it anymore.Nor, apparently, could several other people in his department who have also quit recently. The CEO is distressed about the high employee turnover. He's distressed about the money he's spent in training them. He's distressed because he can't figure out what happened.

Why did this talented employee leave despite a top salary? Arun quit for the same reason that drives many good people away. The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called First Break All The Rules.

It came up with this surprising finding: If you're losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he's the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge, experience and contacts with them.Often,straight to the competition.


"People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. "So much money has been thrown at the challenge of keeping good people - in the form of better pay, better perks and better training - when, in the end, turnover is mostly manager issue." If you have a turnover problem, look first to your managers. Are they driving people away?


Beyond a point, an employee's primary need has less to do with money, and more to do with how he's treated and how valued he feels. Much of this depends directly on the immediate manager. And yet, bad bosses seem to happen to good people everywhere. A Fortune magazine survey some years ago found that nearly 75 per cent of employees have suffered at the hands of difficult superiors. You can leave one job to find - you guessed it, another wolf in a pin-stripe suit in the next one.

Of all the workplace stressors, a bad boss is possibly the worst, directly impacting the emotional health and productivity of employees. HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find public humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave, but a thought has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he starts looking for another job. When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information.

Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don't have your heart and soul in the job." Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious, too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over seemingly trivial issue.

It isn't the 100th blow that knocks a good man down. It's the 99 that went before. And while it's true that people leave jobs for all kinds of reasons- for better opportunities or for circumstantial reasons, many who leave would have stayed - had it not been for one man constantly telling them, as Arun's boss did: "You are dispensable. I can find dozens like you." While it seems like there are plenty of other fish especially in today's waters, consider for a moment the cost of losing a talented employee.


There's the cost of finding a replacement. The cost of training the replacement. The cost of not having someone to do the job in the meantime.The loss of clients and contacts the person had with the industry. The loss of morale in co-workers. The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with others. Plus, of course, the loss of the company's reputation. Every person who leaves a corporation then becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse.

We all know of large IT companies that people would love to join and large television companies few want to go near. In both cases, former employees have left to tell their tales. "Any company trying to compete must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee," Jack Welch of GE once said.

Much of a company's value lies "between the ears of its employees". If it's bleeding talent, it's bleeding value.Unfortunately, many senior executives busy traveling the world, signing new deals and developing a vision for the company, have little idea of what may be going on at home. That deep within an organization that otherwise does all the right things, one man could be driving its best people away!

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