Round-up of the week

Well this time I have a very eclectic selection of links for all of you to peruse.

Let us start with Software. Over the last few days I have been having certain conversations about whether one should develop in admin mode(or login) or not. I do agree that there are certain times when it cannot be avoided. However I am slowly coming around to the view that as far as possible one should not log-in as an admin to develop. Logging in as an admin is a security risk, any which way you slice it. Furthermore at least debugging should always happen in the environment of the end-users and end-users are rarely logged on as admin. For any of you interested on how to work in a non-admin login in .NET just check out these link: A .NET Developer's Guide to Windows Security: Item 9: How to develop code as a non-admin. To know more about the gulf between end-users and system designers(or generally geeks) read about The Luxury of Ignorance: An Open-Source Horror Story. In other news there is talk of Oracle taking over Peoplesoft and Oracle is challenging justice antitrust suit. Oracle + Peoplesoft...whoa that will be one powerful corporation!

Tony Blair does it again! He is in trouble yet again for accusations of receiving transcripts of Kofi Anan's personal calls. It seems like Bush is to blame actually but Tony cannot say that leading to a peculiar situation where his status with the UN Secretary-General, with whom Britain was quite close, is in a soup. Read more here: Britain's spying shame.


Closer home, Koi mil gaya swept away most awards at a star-studded show in Dubai where the highlight was Indo-Pak friendship. I heard quite a bit of the show and the highlights were Javed Jaffrey and Omar Sherriff(of buddha ghar pe hai fame)Hrithik, Urmila bag top awards - The Times of India . In unrelated news
Kanchenjunga Express rams truck, 9 killed - The Times of India.

Colour of socks?

Over the last few days one bone of contention between myself and my friend was about the colour of the socks that one shoud wear, as required by standard etiquette. I was of the opinion that the colour of the socks should match the trousers and he felte that it should match the colour of the shoes. I decided to check this out a few minutes ago and was happy to be unanimously supported by all the etiquette sites. So the rule is: The colour of the socks should match the colour of the trousers and the colour of the belt should match the colour of the shoes.
Here are a few links that will explain this and more about professional etiquettes: Etiquette Tips and Quick Fix Focus On Style- Matching Socks, Men's Style and University of Pittsburgh: Katz Graduate School of Business.

Iran-Contra!!!

If any one remembers the whole Iran-Contra affair they will realize that there was always a premonition in the minds of the powers-that-were that such a clandestine operation could not last long and once the cover was blown they would not be able to explain away the subversive connotations that they had thrown to the common people about the whole charade!
Hey! If you did not understand the last line do not worry:D

Btw did you think you knew all about marriages...Whether you do or not hop over to Piscean's site for more. Also stop over at Rover6064 for some Garam Chai and check out the Rochester Log for some poetry to go along with it. As you are relishing this you can read more about a Matheran trip at Rohan's Blog.

This one beats everything else I have seen or heard in the last few days. I really think that Big M need to be careful about what they say or more importantly how they say it. Maybe the person who said such a ludricious statement needs to get a new course on PR and another one on how to put his point across. All of you have GOT to check out the following sites: the slashdot feed: Slashdot | MS Security Chief: Windows Never Exploited Until Patch Available and the BBC feed pointed out to by the slashdot blog: Hackers exploit Windows patches

Round-Up : TShirts.

In my round-up today I found some really great Tshirts on www.thinkGeek.com. They were really cool. So try out his one if you are a reverse engineer. And for all of us IT guys who love coffee this is another one of import Love Caffeine. And have you ever tried to understand Women using UNIX man pages using the command man woman?
However my fav was this one: 10 Types of Binary People.

The Eagle has landed.

Yup Sarat is here. Hope to meet him soon. Was great knowing that he is only 170kms from where I stay. Talking with him made me a litle emotional...so a very big Hello to all of you out there and a big hug too, to you too victor!

As you can see I did not write a blog yesterday. This time I was Blog-surfing and had full intention to write the blog. However not a single word was willing to come out!!! Guess it will sound pompous but I think I had a writer's block:) Of course please note that the above statement is from a person who likes getting cramps as it proves that one has muscles:D And NO! before any of you ask; I do not get headaches;)

Fiero Owners and their Fiery Rants:D

Hello folks! Hope this weekend treated most of you favourably. I had a most hectic weekend but ended up very happy at the end of it. There was a huge personal happiness and an equally huge professional one. Made a new friend and my delivery went on schedule. However by the end of it I was too exhausted to blog. Sorry Parag:)

One more happy moment was seeing my friend start his own blog site. This is one energetic person and his ideas are like him, strongly opinionated, fiercely independent and with just the right touch of humour. He has already started making excuses but I have a strong premonition(;)) that he will stick to it. It will of course help if you step into his parlor as it will give the kid an impetus to continue. His site is Piscean.

Anyways the title of this blog has to do with his article Terrific Traffic. Just wanted to tell him that my wife easily hits 65kms/hr in Pune, that too on a 75cc bike. What was that about sissy Fiero owners? :D

FilmFar(c)e Awards!!!

Yes Yes I did watch the awards(groans!) live(crazy!!) on SONY(Bonkers!!!). Well I am a sucker for films and this is supposed to be the awards of the people and had some friends over, so anyways I watched it...and cringed...and wept...and thundered...went into a coma...went loco............

First off what the F$@k was Archana Puran Singh doing...her jokes were flatter than Sidhu's puns...and that is saying a lot! Shahrukh and Saif did provide some relief; though it wasn't their best performance. And all, and I mean ALL, the stage performances were PATHETIC!!!

However that's fine...I mean this is an awards function and awards are what we came here for...so it does not matter we did not have a single decent performance(or at least a Janet incident:))

So lets move on to the awards. First, I have a major gripe with all of this special awards like MOTOLOOK and POWER awards. I mean what in the name of hell are these awards for, except for trying to keep everyone(read stars) happy. If there is so much money to put on new awards how about the POWER award for the best spotboy or the MOTOLOOK award for the best performance by a double. Now that would make much more sense. Anyways moving on the POWER award was presented to Shahrukh and Amitabh, the significance of which I did not completely grasp at the time; and looking back now it was actually brazenly obvious. The obvious point was that they were not winning any more awards that evening.

First the best Actor-Critic's award went to Hritik Roshan. Hey I like that guy(I am a big KNPH and Mission Kashmir fan) but I found his work in Koi...mil Gaya pathetic. That's saying a lot if I am saying it as I am a sucker for Bollywood as my earlier articles( Kal Ho Na Ho... & Fill In Blog) clearly show. I saw part of the movie the other day in some channel and that was enough to put me off the whole movie. Most of the time a mentally deficient character or a retarded character is much sought after by actors for the possibilities it gives them. We have had sterling performance in such roles by stalwarts like Dustin Hoffman(Rainman) in Hollywood and even in India stars like Sridevi(Sadma) have given such performances with elan. Put Hritik's performance in front of this and it is like Kareena trying to be Karishma(talking about Kareena she got another "special" award for her role in Chameli...guess Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil would have got a great many "special" awards for their earlier movies if non-actors like Kareena can get them). Hritik is a good dancer but an over-actor. For such a performance to get a critic's award was shocking in front of the Big B's performance in Baghban, Shahrukh's performance in Kal Ho Na Ho and Ajay Devgan's performance in Gangajal. To add insult to injury he did not even come to receive the award, as if it was second-best and not worthy enough for him.

But the worst was yet to follow. The popular actor's award was again given to !!! Hritik !!!(for which he came bouncing up the stage) If this is really what the people like then for the first time I have completely lost touch with the populace of my country. I mean the best part of Koi Mil Gaya was Pretty Preity but Hritik!?!?!?! I totally give up...I am an Amitabh fan but I seriously thought that the people would go for Shahrukh. Of course there is always a doubt this was indeed the people's choice and there has been no scam!!!

Anyways, that was the last filmfare awards I am going to ever see. The only award ceremony which I might watch in the future is one which will be on the lines of the Screen Guild Awards where peers give awards. That I guess will be the true award for good work in the film industry.

Enough of my rant...had to get it out of the system :)
Thanks for our ear...rants and raves welcome as usual.

More on Spam

Neville has pointed out something about a Bayesian filter. According to what he has read this seems to be more useful in preventing spams while still allowing genuine mails through. I will be checking out his links. However as a link round-up of today I am trying to link to comments on my page...so to learn more about what Neville thinks please check out ->Neville's Take on Spam

Trackback test

I am trying a trackback to rover's page this is with respect to his article dated 13th. Lets see if it works!?!

Sorting e-mail friends from foes.

P. Oscar Boykin and Vwani Roychowdhury of the University of California, Los Angeles,think they have a new way to combat spam. It is funny how a day gets hijaked with just one subject. I had lots of discussion today wrt this very same issue(I get close to 70% spam in the 70-75 mails I get everyday:( So it is no wonder that this is the one item on SlashDot that struck me. Here is a link to the article: Sorting e-mail friends from foes: Identifying networks of mutual friends helps filter out spam.. To be completely frank the ideas went a little bouncer for me...but anyways if it helps combat spam I am for it.

Too tired to write; too happy for words!

Too Tired for words,
that was me yesterday night. Had a long day at work. This was followed by a trip to my Vashi home in the 23:30 bus reaching my destination at 2:30 am. I know most people would find this crazy but I am pretty much a nocturnal animal and prefer travelling in the night rather in the early morning:) Its better to reach late and go to sleep and wake up at your own time, sipping tasty bed-tea made by mama:) Anyways though I had a fun time with Magi and Minu and Sanju bhai I was too tired to think:). Hence the break:D

Too Happy for words,
due to an accident involving a Sumo jam packed with people. Before you start to chew off my sadistic butt allow me to explain.
I was on my way back to Pune in a MetroLink bus and we were on the Bombay Bangalore highway just past the inofsys junction(for people who do not know the geography of this are, on a major arterial road and closing in onto Pune) The movie LOC was going on, and everyone was asleep. I was drowsing lightly and had noticed that we would be reaching our stop in 20 odd minutes. Suddenly the bus driver braked massively and everyone got jolted and woke up. However before even a single person could utter the usual obscenities we saw the driver jump out followed by the cleaners/conductors. This lead our view to what the driver had seen; on the other side of the highway where we saw a massive smashup of a sumo fallen into a ditch. The vehicle was careening at a 45 degrees angle and was choc-a-block fille with people, lots of kids and ladies wailing. What happened next made me a proud man. Everyone was out of the bus in 2 seconds flat, people were pulling out the kids, and more people were coming running from nearby shops. In fact by the time I reached the vehicle, which must have taken me two minutes(it took me a few seconds to wake up and have enough clarity to recognize that help was needed) there were enough people gathered around to push the vehicle upright. Alongwith other people I was gratified to see that though the Sumo had a massive bang-up almost everyone was unhurt with one or two having some bruises. Shock and hysteria was the only problems. But by then the nearby villagers had started to calm the passengers and all the good Samaritans having done their bit started back for the bus. In 3 minutes after that we were all seated and started towards Pune, people going back to their sleeps. I drowsed off too, a very happy and proud man, to be part of this specific group of people.

The day of the bulls!!!

This time the link round-up is of three beauties, The Seeker, The Rover and The Bug, bulls all.
It is funny how quite a number of my friends are bull owners. Well, actually it is not so funny after all. I tend to gravitate towards people who have a potential of enjoying a beast like the bull and who can let such a wild animal remain free, who can withstand the condescending attitude their bull gives them but who know that the wild beast will be a much better friend than any other tamed creature. I tend to like these fellows. These guys are less like cowboys on their elaborate steeds and more like the Red Indians on their mustangs, with a healthy relationship between the beast and the man, to a point where it is immaterial who is driving whom!
I like this guys cause I am like them in my heart. If there is any smaller beast I like then the only one, The Only One allowed is the Yam, of the RX100 variety. If the bull is the big cat then the yam is the garden one, both of them fiercely independent, totally opinionated, expecting royal treatment and exuding power with every ripple.
Yup, it's good to have friends who have Yams and bulls, these guys one can depend upon!

About the links read about The Seeker here:Coming Back To Life.
Read about Rover's history here: Rover6064.
And find out why a proud owner(an IT guy!) would call his proud superego a BUG: Title_TBD.

P.S: Hey Pawan you missed out on a poetic sentence. You should have written Rover(wanderer, NOMAD, vagabond)
By the way if I had a bull it would have to be called Psychotron:)

Red carpet to my home!!!

Well not exactly a red carpet, in fact not even close...but it feels like one to me...I am talking about the new road to my house. For close to 4 years I have had to suffer navigating trough different forms of craters to get to my place. This state of affairs has resulted in untold miseries for me, affecting both my health and my wallet. We have tried many a time to speak with our corporator about this. Each time there is an assurance but nothing happens.

So imagine my surprise when suddenly, around two weeks ago, the 500 metres stretch of broken rubble was suddenly transformed into a smooth tarred road; in a single day!!! It seems they used some kind of machine which does this kind of work rapidly. Guess the municipality must have bought a new machine,otherwise they would have surely used it before. Of course this was my optimism speaking.
For suddenly I realized that there was lots of things happening, six lane highway works were being completed rapidly, the sewers were getting cleaned, new pipes were being laid down and yes, even small little lanes were being given a new face. Slowly my ever-present cynicism took over and I tried to think why so much development was happening so rapidly.
It was at this point that I started catching up with the daily news again and it struck me like a pile of bricks. But Of Course!!! The elections were approaching! I did not know whether to laugh or cry. Felt like Laxman's common man. Then I switched on my basic Bombay brain and rationalized, the road was made so let's leave it at that and not think of the sad situation of our khaki-clad rulers!
But inspite of this normal rationalization I could not help thinking about this everytime I traveled this path. And at the end of all this thinking I have decided that the only way our people will get the government's attention, and get what they deserve, was to appeal to the election commissioners to hold elections every year:D

Round of some news!

Was going through Google news and the following news interested me so I Thought I would share it with all of you.

First off the fishy connection. Just today evening I had most delicious fish fry made by my friend Parag's mother. It was lip-smacking. You must understand that though I am a certified carnivore, and can eat just about anything, fish is my absolute favourite . So here I am thinking back on the fish when one of the first stories that strike my attention is Fishermen get space guides. Nice to know that technology is used for the common man. However I am worried of what this means to the marine ecology!?! I hope the fisheries think of that too. Which brings me to another rant. My mom's place is on the shores of Vembanad Kayal in Kerala. Now Vembanad Kayal is he biggest backwater in the land of backwaters. As is obvious there is a flourishing fisheries industry here. Also almost every other day we have fish to eat. However the fisheries send the best fish for export and what we end up with are the second best. Same thing is repeated everywhere, for eg. with mangoes and bananas. Almost feel like there should be a reservation quota for edibles which are exported:D
From small fry we jump to big fish and how Laloo is very unhappy that Vajpayee asserts that he is Atal and not a Bihari:) Check out the link!
Atal's Bihari comment upsets Laloo.

That's all I found interesting:)

50% success!

This weekend was a 50/50 success for my blog site. I managed to write up something on Sunday early morning. However I went into a brain freeze on Sunday evening and hence did not update the site. Nonetheless I am happy that I at least managed to write at least one blog this weekend:D
What I did do during the weekend was go blog-surfing. This time I decided to start from my blogs. The surfing was fun; I visited the usual suspects, i.e. Sujith,Soumitra,Sarat and Pawan. From Pawan's site I made the jump to his brother Rohan's site. Another bull fanatic, another good writer. From his site I visited Rochester via his friend Hemant's site. Well maintained site. His site took me to a couple of other places, all this resulting in me being completely caught up for around 2 hours just reading different blogs. Was great fun. Try these links yourself, and jump in and start blogging yourselves.

Game Endings.

** Spoilers for some games**
Game endings!!! Two words which mean nothing to the uninitiated and volumes for the gamers. Game endings are the holy grail for which people play. Yup, we do play for the pure thrill of the kill, the chance to drive with our stars, the sheer challenge of solving a puzzle. However at the end of it all somewhere at the back of our mind we crave for a reward of some kind. Something we can take back for all the hours we gave to the game, keeping our lives on hold, bravely asking on all scorn thrown at us from our love ones who we ignore for the sake of the game.Something which makes the last 15 hours worthwhile.
Well earlier games did not have an elaborate end sequence as mostly the games themselves did not end and we just kept trying to get the next best score. However as game consoles got into more homes and games like Mario and Final Fantasy came into picture there was a need for at least a rudimentary end scene. However I am no qualified as I haven't played games of this era but suffice it to say that the end scenes were getting more and more elaborate.
I came into the picture playing games in the mid-nineties and I remember seeing short but beautiful end-sequences. In games like street fighter I have tried to win as each different character just to get the personalised end-scene. In another game called "One Must Fall" the end scene was almost the same with only the audio changing as each contestant wanted to do something quite different with the prize they had one I spent six months and won the tournament as each character just to sate my curiosity at what each one wanted to do with the power granted them.
Now coming to the present age I find the situation is not as good. For example I spent lots, and I mean LOTS(for it is quite a difficult FPS), of hours playing Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault only to have the game tell me abruptly that it was the end. That was the most shocking part of the whole game when I finished one mission all ready for the next and the game closes down on me. Now compare this to the end of Max Payne 2. After playing for quite some time I reached the end and after the MOHAA story I was quite apprehensive but I was made party to a beautiful closure. Not only that but the whole game faded into the credits-movie style- with a soundtrack, specifically a song written for the game. It was pure pleasure...you know the kind where you hoped that someone was around to see your accomplishments.
So if any of you know any game developers, please ask them to work on the endings. In today's time games take a lot of your time and one is entitled to a epic closure at the end of the whole effort.

Valentines, Vasantutsavs and Game Endings!

Happy Valentine's day!!! What does it mean??? My friend Mya greeted me today(Thanks milady) and that I did not mind; for I know she says it from her heart. For people like her it is a day for reaffirming the loves and friendships of her life. If that is what Valentine's day means I am all for it. But please spare me the cards and roses and cute stuff. I love my beautiful wife and I love my elders and siblings and I love all my friends and I do not need a specific day to say this to them. I specially do not need a day which is designed to get me feel guilty if I do not loosen my purse-strings.
BUT: but; I am not for banning it either. All we need is a little moderation so that the true meaning of the day comes. What we specifically do not need are hoodlums try to act as the protectors of our morality. Hey dudes I am in charge of my own morality and I am not gonna stand here waiting for you to tell me to celebrate Vasantutsav!!!
Anyways I will stop here. Else my ranting will really take too long what with the 13 Friday bull and then this Valentine/Vasantutsav issue. As if there was no bigger problem that we have.
I was going to speak about Game endings but I think I will take a break and get back to it in a short while.

Microsoft - Up or Down

This weekend is fast turning into a MS weekend. Yesterday we heard of them wanting to open their code to our govt. and now we hear that there is no need as their code is already available on the Net:D Frankly I still do not want that code...to have to go through all that polish notation is much more torture than getting punished by the FBI Here is the link: Net file-swappers snap up Windows source code.
And if that was not enough check out this article where Gartner has problems with Microsoft: Gartner Questions Microsoft's Commitment To Operating-System Security.
So it seems like Friday 13 was not too good for MS. However there is a silver lining as it seems they will benefit a lot from Comcast's bid for Disney by either supporting it or bidding against it. Check out the link Microsoft a winner Comcast-Disney deal

India to get a look at Windows code?

With Linux making inroads(check the blog below) MS is hitting back. Check out this article: India to get a look at Windows code? - News - ZDNet.

Linux is in!

Interesting news item. So now all of us who are afraid to put our hands into UNIX and have been using the excuse of UNIX not making inroads may not have that excuse any more. So get you KNOPPIX CD's and brush up on your commands. Guess I need to borrow that old copy of Pike :) Here is the related news item: Linux makes inroads into India - News - ZDNet.

So many talking ... how many listening?

It seeems like today all my posts depend on other blogs. This ones about talking and listening and opinions galore. If everyone shouts from the rooftops who listens? Does anyone care? These are some of the issues that my dear friend Sarat tackles in his Feb ramblings here So many talking ... how many listening?.
Frankly I have never had an original idea, let alone an original opinion. But then opinions are normally formed due to circumstances, company and context. Nonetheless I consider myself to be very weakly-opinionated person. I mean I can fight for months for end for a certain cause but if some one shows me something which proves me wrong I am every ready to join the opposing gang. People call it shifting but I call it being true to what I think. I see no point holding on to an idea that I do not believe in myself. However I hate to be rude in my opinions. I normally do not consider any idea of mine to be important enough to hurt someone. I prefer to be civil rather than honest. I think honesty is not something that somebody deserves automatically. I am brutally honest to only those people who warrant it. I find no reason to be honest to everyone. Why should I sell my soul to the devil for no reason whatsoever. But I never lie. And it can be done; one can be truthful and still be civil. The trick lies in deciding how far into the truth one wants to delve. But we digress. We started with opinions and ended with a monologue of me.
Anyway my last words on opinions is that I really do not care. You have a right to yours and I am not interested, unless your opinion is interesting on its own! I reserve the right to accept what I think is right, and I am smart enough to check out the flip side too. And that is all I recommend. Walk in the other person's shoes, look at the point from another perspective. And if you still end where you were then well and good, else it's time to change you opinion.

Weblogs: a history and perspective

Was wandering through rediff's blog site today when I chanced upon a link ot the history of blogging. Read it and liked the piece so I thought I would link it here for all of you. Read essays :: weblogs: a history and perspective for more info of the earlier days of blogging.

Addition to links

A new friend of mine who works in my company has allowed me to add his blog site to my links. Thank you Soumitra. I could not access your site today morning, so please check if the link is right.
About the other links Rover6064 is regularly updated, and gives us a glimpse of the everyday life of 'A Biker and A Gentleman'
About Title_TBD (TBD will never change, it is a reality and we will have to accept TBD as the name of the site:)) I did check up on him and at last call he was "busy". Nonetheless I expect some activity in the next couple of days.
I know we have a mutual admiration society going on here but it really does make writing that much more fun.

A moment of weakness?(or just plain melodrama!!!)

Emotive gratitude.
------------------------

Two minutes ago an image popped,
into my head.
An image seen sometime ago,
of a feature about a lab,
and some experiments on behaviour.
I remember seeing, in this feature,
rats running on and on;
Inside a drum-like wheel,
running a marathon with no end.

This got me thinking,
is this the rat race I am in?
And the thought got me all worked up inside,
Worked up enough to depress me.
And the mood would have stayed with me,
so I tried to snap myself out of it.

I tried to rationalize my life with the luxuries I own,
like my comp, my music, my games, my movies.
But nothing seemed to matter at this hour
So I looked again; at things dear to me,
my books and my home.
But none of this helped me,
dispel the gloom that my heart had slipped into.

Then my wandering gaze fell;
upon the smiling face of my consort,
in sweet repose.
And I smiled.

My mind went back over our daily routine;
of the quick 'have a good days' of the mornings,
the pleasure of our regular spats,
the peace of our shared supper.
The fun we had wrestling over some problem,
the burying of the hatchet to sleep.
And I smiled again.

An then my mind skipped a track,
and I remembered my friends;
of daily banter, criticisms and support,
and I tried to count my friends but there were too many,
And I smiled a little more.

Then my mind went down a dangerous path,
to my work-day,
And I thought my mind must be crazy,
for why was it trying to depress me again?
But I saw the security my job gave,
and I saw a hope for tomorrow,
and a whole new set of pals.
I thought back on the day,
and I saw friends help me get me through it,
with their jokes, their sarcasm,
their time and their labour.
And my heart skipped a beat.

I thought of my pops and moms,
and sisters both,
And my surrogate fathers and mothers,
and the dear siblings of my own choice.
And again my eyes rest on my wife,
And this time I share her smile,
And at this moment I am happy,
happier than a king.

Love is indeed a wonderful thing,
And though I care little for 14 of Feb;
Here’s a little love,
And thanks,
And a little prayer;
To all my buddies in every size and form,
And a special kiss to my closest buddy,
Who shares my adventure with me.

- Brij (12th Feb 2004)

Analysis! The core of IT work?

Today I thought I will speak to you about something close to my heart (and wallet). I am of course referring to my industry, the fast-track, remedy of all economies, the IT industry.
I am essentially a coder, though I haven't coded in a while. For a long time, like many others around me, I was of the view that a software project was all about coding fast, coding smart and coding correctly. However as the title suggests this view has changed over time. Now I feel that Analysis along with Requirement Capture is the most important thing in a project.
Face it, coding expertise has almost become a de-facto requirement to work in the industry and more often than not you will find efficient programmers here. However where we, including myself, goof up is in the region of requirement capture and analysis.
The advantages of a correct analysis are numerous, and most of them are directly connected to the bottom line. Proper and swift analysis bring forth early on the estimated time that the work will take as well as expected risks. This results in better management and buffering for the project. Bad analysis is of course obviously costly as the project goes on a completely different track. However good analysis is also not useful if not done on time. The result of a late analysis is that one is forced to accept the terms of one's clients as one does not have any facts to oppose these terms. This puts the project onto a sweat-shop situation. I myself have been guilty of it and I expect every programmer will make or already has made this mistake.
The problem is the basic mentality of a programmer of not asking for a review or checking an assumption till he/she is sure that he/she has crossed all t's and dotted all the i's. I have realized that this mentality is very harmful for the project. It is better to ask silly question around the early quarter of a project's life-cycle rather than come up with a deep one just days before release. This is not to say that questions should not be asked. It just means that one has to start thinking in the manner that all analysis that may need an input from the customer has to be done and completed as early as possible. This requires complete understanding of both the goal of the project and about the code to be worked on or created for attaining this goal. This is of course not doable all the time but like all good habits keeping this in mind at all times will make one much more professional in today's hectic work space.

Does all of the above make sense; it does to me and if I have failed to put my thought across succinctly then please forgive my communication skills and try to catch my drift. Or as a good friend of mine always says "Sur ko Pakad"!!!:D

Sax and Payne.

No! Do not jump to the conclusions that I am writing this piece as part of cheap theatrics, a la certain varieties of Jacksons, to boost the hits on my page. (Speaking of the Janet,and the nipplegate incident, I do not understand the furor that her bosom is causing in America. This from the land which gave the world WMD's in the form of the silicon weapons of the Baywatch gang. Sometimes I wonder whether Americans realize how stupid they look to the outside world:) One good fall-off of this incident, as one wag noted, is that for once and all it has been proven that Janet and Michael are two different people.)

Anyway the title comes from another dialogue in the game. At one point the narrator says something on the lines of the fact that for both to stay alive the partnership of Sax and Payne(for Mona Sax and Max Payne, creative names , what!) is necessary. At this point visualize, if you may, one playing at an intense level, desperately trying to prevent oneself from being out flanked by hordes of Mafia commandos, when suddenly one hears this dialogue. I lost it man, had to start the level again as I just could not stop laughing after hearing the Sax and Payne part. Funnily it hadn't struck me till that moment when I heard their names spoken together. You wonder what the fuss is about...Well! You had to be there:)

Thinking about it again it would not hurt if some desperate pervert with shaky fingers and bad spelling actually increases the hits of this page:D

Things you learn in games

Just finished Max Payne-2. Interesting game, my favourite kind... lotsa shooting, guns, wit, film-noir setting, sexy babe who can pack a wallop , great sound and intense, though cliched, story. It is a short game but immense fun. Anyways due to being a film-noirish story there is a lot of cynical and dry dialogues sprinkled throughout the game One such dialogue really caught my attention. Hence this article so that I can place it on a mantle for all of you to enjoy.

"There are no choices. Nothing but straight lines. The illusions come afterwards when you ask 'Why me?' and 'What if?' When you look back, see the branches, like a pruned bonsai tree or forked lightening. If you had done something differently, it wouldn't be you, it would be someone else looking back, asking a different set of questions.'

Explosive isn't it:) The writer for Max Payne was Sam Lake and he also wrote a song especially for he game called 'The Last Goodbye' The song also has its own importance but I will keep that as the subject of my another blog.

The usual excuses...

...well!!! Actually I haven't any! Just an observation that somehow in the weekends, when I can actually sit 24 hours on the net, I end up doing other (non-netty) things and never manage to write a decent blog. I am sure there must be a scientific name for such a condition but I do not know what it is:) Anyways if someone actually felt bad that I hadn't written I sincerely apologize.

Cover-Up:)

Not in a mood to write...hence covering up with one more extract this time foorma song I like:

"Takes more than combat gear to make a man
Takes more than license to wear a gun
Confront your enemies, avoid them when you can
A gentleman will walk but never run"

- from 'An Englishman In New York' by Sting.

And Archiving is done!

Yup!!! Do not ask me how... believe me you do not want to know. Anyways just wanted to inform to all of you that the archives are open and working again...if any of you want to step in and comment on any of the archives you are most welcome.
Nev I still have to hear from you about the new set-up.

Archiving issues!

My work on the main page paidoff. However now I am struggling with the archives. Seems they are not ready to lose the old template of commentthis. Lets see if I can think of something.

More Tweaking Done.

Hello folks, nothing substantial to add as I have spent my whole evening tweaking my site again. In addition to the links not been seen in many browsers, today the site itself was having a lot of trouble loading. This was due to some problem with the CommentThis site. This has precipitated an action I was thinking for quite some time now of moving to another comment site. This site gives me a better control over the comment systems. Let's see how you folks like it. The bad news is I have lost all the older comments made by you groovy dudes. Sorry folks, could not help it!

I have also played with the structure of the page and brought the links to the left. Hope this time links are visible at the top for everyone. Another change I have done is to make sure that there are no more than 7 posts on the main page. The older posts will be archived in their respective weekly archives. For infrequent visitors and first-timers I would strongly recommend a walk through the archives just to get a sense of the direction(or lack thereof) of the site.

I have converted one more dude to the blogging religion. My man with the Bull, Pawan, has also started blogging. I have added his page to the link list.

That's all for the day. For everyone around the world, have a great day!

Back to reading

After a long hiatus(I know! I know! Can't get the word out of my head!) I am back to reading. Started with a book which was pending for a long time...God Among Ruins by Leon Uris.

Went to crossword to get some more books. Got the following:

1. English, August- Upamanyu Chatterjee -- always wanted to get the book after seeing the movie. It is anyday better than stupid books like The Inscrutable Americans.

2. A Writer's Nightmare - R.K.Narayan -- Once I saw the book on the rack I could not resist it. It is a collection of essays by him. I love the unpretentiousness of his language and the way he leads up to ideas. Truly the only other person who can get ideas across in fewer strokes is his brother.

3. The Great Indian Novel - Shashi Tharoor -- Do not know much about this one except that it was suggested by a person with good taste. So let me see how it turns out.

4. Sholay, The making of - Anupama Chopra -- From the time this book hit the market I had to get it. It is a good book. Why buy it? Well! If you have to ask; you will never understand:D

So in this manner I am set up for the next month. YES!!!

To close todays blog an extract from the fourth book which bought a smile to my lips when I visualised it from college days, " In canteens across the country, collegians still echo Gabbar when they notice a budding romance: ' Bahut yaarana hai'."

A thought in two Moods

I read a beautiful poem and wanted to share it with the rest of you.
The poem is:

A Thought In Two Moods
----------------------------------

I saw it -- pink and white -- revealed
Upon the white and green,
The white and green was a daisied field,
The pink and white Ethleen.

And as I looked it seemed in kind
That difference they had none;
The two fair bodiments combined
As varied miens of one.

A sense that, in some mouldering year,
As one they both would lie,
Made me move quickly on to her
To pass the pale thought by.

She laughed and said: 'Out there, to me,
You looked so weather-browned,
And brown in clothes, you seemed to be
Made of the dusty ground!'

- Thomas Hardy

Hope you liked it.

Diary entry.

Here is a sneaky entry for the sake of maintaining a diary of events for my own sake:) Olly was here in Pune this Saturday, alongwith his girlfriend. Sangram and Nev also accompanied him. Due to work load of others in Pune I was left with the pleasure of showing them around. Pune isn't really very high on number of places to visit. Nonetheless had a great day and hope everyone else enjoyed it.

I remember going to Bangalore and then taking Sujith around. I found it surprising that he was visiting a lot of places for he first time with me though he was in Bangalore for over 3 years. Well I got a dose of the same medicine. After 5 years of staying in Pune I visited Sinhagad for the first time, thanks to Olly's visit. When I think back I realize that I have visited all the tourist spots of Bombay primarily in the process of showing it to some guest who had come to see Bombay. Interesting how one never gets time to visit such sites due to the daily grind of everyday life (or laziness; take your pick!)

Happy events of the week gone by.

This last week saw two of my old classmates commit themselves to a life of marital bliss. Srini got married on Jan 28th and Rama got married on Feb 1st.Here's wishing a very happy married life to both of them and to their respective spouses.

About the look and feel!

Nev checked out this site and found the links at the bottom of thispage. That has got me very confused as I use IE6.0 and Mozilla and I see the links on the right of the page. Can I get feedback from other people as to where you see links in our fav browser. Mighty Thanks for the same!

Sorry for the hiatus!!!

Hiatus! A classy word I picked up from my friends blog site. Funny that just after a post where I was speaking of continued and constant, disciplined writing I let 2 days go by without jotting a word. Well I have my regular excuses - a little under the weather I have been. However it is not a good trend and I hope there will not be any more hiatii(is that the plural,I wonder!?!) from me.