Destination without Roadmap

I have come across this dilemma many times in the past. Many say that it is the journey that matters not the destination. While that could be true - I think both are complementary. If the goal/ destination is noble and has far fetching implications, the journey will automatically become truly satiating one's soul. If it is a personal and self-centric, may be the journey will become very stressful.  How far off from the base am I?

One of the things that I always wanted to do in the past few years is to do something that will touch the lives of thousands if not millions in a positive way. As a person who is not passionate about charity (I dont know why), I find the number of ways I could do on the personal front are limited. I have to find it soon or else I feel wasted having a destination but not having a road map.

Love for all...

How much AT&T made on my iphone

While I am thinking how much is the impact of iphone and carrier subsidization in the mobile industry, my own spend came into picture. Here is the math

I got my first iphone 3G in July 2008 and then upgraded to an iphone 4 in Aug 2010. Cost $200 each which is $400 straight to Apple.

Now if I consider the data plan - till now I paid $1080 to AT&T. If I consider that I have to own the phone at least next 6 months to get an upgrade (and 1 more year if  I dont want to pay an ETF), I am practically locked down to spend at least  $1440 to AT&T. And the cost of devices  that AT&T paid upfront - not more than $700  - a neat $740 gross..Not bad I think- on an already existing 3G infrastructure -adding more lines doesn't cost much - perhaps  $100 per year at the most for administration and maintenance of my account. I think there is a reason why mobile carriers are after smart phones.

Commercials aside, how much value did iphone brought to me - just great. And after jail breaking, it just exploded. I could customize to my heart - with many apps and mods. It is an experience of it's own. 

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

A Few Good Men - whatever be the model

Recently I had a discussion with couple of my project colleagues on Outsourcing and Offshoring, the two most misunderstood (and controversial) words in American business. The context was if we are better off with insourcing and that the trend is more towards insourcing. Again those who are having this debate with are not affected by outsourcing rather they are masters in managing the business model with heavy outsourcing/offshoring. So there is no explicit protectionist stand there in the debate.

The points raised by them are
1) Outsourcing makes institutional knowledge go out of the company. My counter is - that is inherent problem with relying too much on people. Your organization's business knowledge is your most valuable asset. We are better off to have it in a good KM system than with people. People part of the equation is extremely important too. But if your key resources leave your company the risk is even higher, if you do not have a good KM Model.

2) Outsourcing gives flexibility to react fast to business needs. My counter - Yes and No. Yes, if it is a fast analysis report that is needed if you want to take a decision within few hours. No, if your need is to build a durable software system with solid framework. Needless to say other operational aspects of business like Back Office Operations, ITIS, other operations. You are basically making sure your resources are well spent on the core business and market.

3) Outsourcing is expensive in long run. This I disagree. Outsourcing is a derisking option. You have to pay for the risk you are offloading. Total cost has to be carefully measured and managed. I think by going for a specialized organization, which has virtually unlimited resource pool, experience of running similar projects/ operations, and agility to adapt best industry practices, the candidate organization will have lot to gain than lose.

Offshoring - It is a very sensitive subject but we have to bring it when there is an outsourcing discussion.

Offshoring needs at the core level understanding of the model, strong partnership with a manageable set of vendors, a solid RFP and award process, a good VMO setup, tracking, reporting and controlling process.

My personal experience - I have seen even simplest projects fail and most complex business processes succeed. While the models help a lot, it is ability to form and lead strong teams matters the most.

In this context, I remember the quote from one of my favorite movies "Das Boot" when the crew repairs and floats the sunk U-boat "You have to have good men. Good men, all of them."

Are we ready for sheikra drop?

Sheikra is one of the best thrill rides at Busch Gardens, Tampa, FL. While not the scariest ride, it has it's own movements. The highlight of that ride is a free fall 90 degrees from 200 feet height. The euphoria of the wall street makes me feel that we are ready for similar all. While all trends and charts, market data looks like the worst times are over, I do not see the optimism in the main street. Job data is not at all positive. I did not see any new projects announced. I did not see strong regulatory steps that prevent banks from doing what they did. I did not see any measures to prevent ARM housing credit crisis as many fear is unfolding. I did not see any positive steps.

Politically, I see that Obama admin is in a stalemate on the most important bill they want to make - Health Reforms. It sounds so socialist to begin with, what they want to do for the uninsured. And the fact that average cost for a household is 15K including employer contribution is very disturbing. I wish they find a way of eliminating kick backs for costly procedures and also to improve national health by adding more community gyms, sports centers and fitness centers. Meanwhile Republicans are in their shell and doesn't want to come out for anything except scandals.

Immigration reforms, my favorite topic - should offshoring companies hire more people locally. I think they should. With stricter, often meaningless rejects of H1B renewals, I dont think there is an alternative. But I really wish they make the green card policy more practical. I dont think a position for which labor was filed in 2000 be still available in 2009. I dont think an EB-3 programmer in 2000 will still be a programmer of same skillset on 2009. If he is, then US doesnt need such underachievers. This is a flawed policy that needs urgent reform. And for god's sake, dont consider PhDs alone as highly skilled immigrants. Building complex software systems do need lots of rigor, discipline and talent. H1Bs are highly skilled.

BTW, I felt happy for Hillary Clinton that she could use Clinton to meet people like Kim Jong II. It must be ultimate revenge for his past mistakes like breaking vows of marriage and for bombing camels asses using his executive powers to deviate the country.

Domestic front, I could not help wondering what made Mr MM Singh give silly statements at Sharm el-Sheikh. Pakistan did not take any action against Nov 26 attacks and this statement seem to be putting that attack on India behind.

Other than these, off late, I am inspired by these videos of JP
JP on Politics and Governance
JP's lecture at Mumbai University

As you can see, there is no central idea behind this post...just some ramblings..

ye rojaithe choosano ninnu (the day I saw you)

ye rojaithe choosano ninnu
aaroje nuvvaipoyaa nenu
kaalam kaadanna
ae dooram addunna
nee oopiroinayi ne jeevisthunnanoo

nee sparse ee veeche gaalullo
nee roope naa veche gundello
ninnati nee smrutile nannu nadipisthoo unte
aaa nee needayi vasthaanu etu vayipunnnaa

nee kashtam lo nenoo unnannooo
karige nee kanneravuthaa nenoo
champallo jaari nee gundello cheri
nee ekantham lo odaarpavuthaanoo

kaalam edo gaayam chesindee
ninne maayam chesaananthondee
lokam nammi ayyo antondee
sokam kamme jokodanaanandi
gaayam kosthunna ne jeevincheunna
aa jeevam neevani saaksham isthunnaa

neetho gadipina aa nimishaalannee
naalo pongina gundela savvadule
avi cherigaayante ne nammedettaagaa
nuv lekunte nenantoo undanugaa

nee kashtam lo nenoo unnannooo
karige nee kanneravuthaa nenoo
champallo jaari nee gundello cheri
nee ekantham lo odaarpavuthaanoo

ye rojaithe choosano ninnu
aaroje nuvvaipoyaa nenu
kaalam kaadanna
ae dooram addunna
nee oopiroinayi ne jeevisthunnanu.......

IMO, this is one of the best lyrics in Telugu movies. Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry, the lyricist is a word magician who can weave words into beautiful lyrical fabric that can be primped into awesome composition. It is from the movie Gulabi, an eccentric story, well told. Was my college time favourite. Well why not it has energy, songs, violence and importantly over dose of love. So much that otherwise normal looking girl Maheshwari became a hearthrob for some folks at least for some time...(hey I am talking about the year 1995)

Media Responsibility

Everybody knows about the Satyam-gate scandal. Many bloggers like Priya blogged their views and thoughts on this. I am not going to say anything about that scandal at all.

My concern is electronic media in AP and their irresponsible heckling of Satyam employees. I heard that there are bunch of channel crew waiting around the block from Satyam offices and keep pestering the employees to say something or other. If they show any emotion - anger, frustration or disappointment, it will be shot in cameras and shown in news. If they express any word, that will be shown in news. This will put the employees job at stake as many companies will take disciplinary action for interacting with media without prior permission.

What crime did these employees do to deserve this? I think many unqualified and unethical fellows became journalists because of explotion of TV News Channels. In their hunger for news and sensationalism they are not following any journalistic standards. The same was evident during 11/26 Mumbai attacks.

Who will reign them?

Height of a building

Sukumar tweeted about this article today which made me think if we our thought process was suppressed in our school system or not. Here are my experiences...

All through my education from my 4th standard until my PG I never did home work. Never means really never. I never believed in writing the same stuff from one book (we used to call classwork notebook) to another book (homework book) interesting. The net effect is, my favorite class teacher, Miss Dora Raj (who used to teach Maths, Science, Social, English, Moral Science, GK) used to make me kneel down in the front of the class. My school's HM (we used to call her Big Sister), used to have a break room next to our class. She used to pass through the corridor every single day at 9 AM and she saw me and Naveed(who is my best kneeldown mate). Both my class teacher and my HM never found it strange how one student will never do homework every single day. I find it very odd. Or rather they accepted that as part of the scenary of the corridor :-) .

Next comes exams - I never read anything by heart. I used to write all original answers after understanding the concept. My fav teacher, Miss Dora Raj, when she found that a new student who joined her class (in 4th class), doesnt repeat exactly what she wrote on the blackboard in exams, was very thrilled. She used to encourage me and highlight that fact in front of every one even in school assembly. For a 8 year old kid, it must be a real motivator. I am proud and priveleged to have such a teacher.

But later in all my education, I found that my B.Sc Chemistry lab instructors encouraged us to do things different. We (Sameer, Satish and I) in our final year, changed all experiments which doesnt produce results with the ones that produce results. The older experiments were followed even though obsolete since 1970s. So glad that we had some practical instructors for chemistry practicals.

It also made me think if we as humans by nature try to influence other's ideas or principles. My son who is just 6 months old ofter tries to do things that i dont know. But sometimes I feel uncomfortable and anxious if it would hurt him. After reading the above article about Niel Bohr, I feel ashamed. I will try to change myself and encourage him do things that he finds amusing as long as it is safe - logically not as per my experience.

New Template - please give your feedback

Since Green is the way to go, to support all Green initiatives, I changed the theme of my blog to this. Let me know if you like it.

2008 Gadget Recap

I am not a big gadget lover. At least that is what I used to think of myself. But my friends think otherwise. Sometimes I even get few calls from friend's friends who want me to give a piece of advice on how a particular camcorder model works. While admitting I never bought a camcorder in my life till recently, I still do lot of research skimming through 100s of forum posts, reviews, blogs and suggest few best picks for them to choose. May be I am more curious of the specs of a piece of hardware than using that in real life. Coming to this post, I want to list the gear I purchased this year 2008 to see if I qualify to become one.

Lenovo S10 Netbook - This I should say I did not buy for myself. But I gifted this to my mummy. She wanted a light weight notebook and nothing seemed better than this. With 1 GB RAM, 1.6 GHz processor, I found it really sufficient for my everyday usage.

Canon HG-20 Like I said earlier, I do not have a camcorder (I dont want to consider my Casio Exilim which shoots some average video). My wife insisted that I should buy one. I found this Canon model has the best price-feature-convenience ratio amongst the consumer HD models. And it did not disappoint me. My only complaint about this model is video editing. All the three laptops I own cannot even open a 5 minute video shot at 24 MBPS - thanks to AVCHD.

iphone 3G I already blogged about this purchase. It is one product I found very useful, be it twitterrifc or Amazon or my banking app, working on iphone is a breeze. With it's superb Exchange ActiveSync, I could access all my work and personal email in one standard interface.

I also bought a new rucksack KATA DR-467 that will help me carry my SLR along with my laptop whereever I go. While I find my iphone 3G good for cool casual pictures, nothing like a Digital SLR with it's large lens and larger sensor. This Kata was available for 59$ instead of regular 79$ and free 2 day shipping by air. I could not resist the deal. It is superb quality bag and built like a tank. Interestingly, Kata has some roots in the same lab/group that developed millitary gear for special units.

This year is much better than last year where I went to but a HDMI cable and came home with a laptop and DVD player or 2004 when I went to Tampa Bay Downs, saw a Nikon D70S from my photographer friend Whillemina and ended up ordering myself. And dont even get started on my Panasonic HDTV 26" purchase in 2005, the same amount if I pay now, I will get a 42". (Is Moore's law applicable for HDTVs..I think so).

Coming into 2009, I do have some purchases planned. I want to upgrade my TV to a 50" HDTV. I also wish to get a home theater. May be Santa will listen to this.

My Movie - The Motorcycle Diaries

First, the movie is a straight forward one. No heroism, no guns, no SFX, no thread fights, no sex. It is a bland yet brilliantly honest presentation of life of Ernesto "Che" Guevara during his early 20s. The film itself is an adaptation of the book with the same name. Che goes on an motorbike tour with his friend, Alberto. The locales are original, the San Pablo leper colony scene is also wonderful. The farewell speech at the leper colony is a bit political. It is an interesting movie. I recommend it as it is more humanist than communist movie. Well I dont know what Che's soul might be feeling, if it knows that his photo is doing millions of dollars business....err evil capitalist businesses ;-)

Thanks APTECH

When I look back in my career, there are certain decisions which I felt were bad after I took in short outlook, but they proved to be great in long run.

This story goes back to 1994, when I did not get a seat in Engineering (BE/BTech). Well if you know the charged atmosphere in 1994, it seemed to be a bad bad thing. Then one of my good friends Sameer told me that he is writing an aptitude test at APTECH, Nellore and that they will waive the fees based on what we score. We both promptly wrote the exam and got 50% discount in fees. After 50% discount also the fee is quite high - around 15,000 Rs. But we both were charmed by tie clad instructors, OHP class rooms, clean AC Lab (of course running MS-DOS 5). There used to be 3 hours per week classroom instruction and unlimited lab. We used lab extensively, often playing computer games. Then I got a chance to meet Vijay, one brilliant chap who introduced me to C Language. We both bought "Let Us C" by Yashwant Kanetkar. We did overnight reading of the entire book and within next week, we purchased "Pointers in C". Then Vijay infected me with another series of books including TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident)programs. That made me a mini hacker in Aptech, and was almost kicked out of the institute when I put a TSR in the autoexec.bat and it never allowed to boot. For all the pranks I played, I had terrible guilt. I was not thinking of any career.

After that I got a bit serious and joined JNTU College of Engineering, Anantapur for MCA(Master of Computer Applications) degree. It is big college with huge buildings and very scarce manpower. We are again forced to do our first practical lab exam on paper. Imagine the plight. But there again APTECH helped me. I continued the left out course from APTECH Nellore at APTECH Anantapur. There I could use lab until we got our Windows NT lab at our college (by Sem 4). Aptech Anantapur was less glamorous and instructors are just passed out engineering grads, waiting to enter IT industry. Almost everyone who can spell software used to get H1B for Y2K those days.

With that background when I joined IT industry in 1999, I found every single thing I studied helpful. Be it my MCA project at Syntel or the architecture I had to create. I dont claim it to be cutting edge design, but the fundamentals I learned about computers in 1994 were helping me do things fast. It was like a smooth ride to open any technology be it J2EE/ EJB or Threading or working as fill-in DBA in Informix, there seemed to be nothing that I found difficult.

Thanks Aptech and thanks Daddy and Mummy for paying such exuberant fees for the financial difficulties you had. It is never a waste of money.

I am not sure how Aptech or other institutes are doing these days.

My dad joined blogosphere

It needed a little pursuance and around 15 minutes of explaining terms and creating the Blogger account, my Daddy finally decided to blog. For an avid reader of different books and a classic movie freak, I am eager to follow his blogs.

And thanks to Sukumar's appa for the motivation.

Check this out http://nellorian.blogspot.com/

Big UAT coming up

We created a new and pretty portal for one of our clients. What is unique about this is it is all about social networking. Employees of my client can use this site to blog, subscribe to RSS feeds, add friends to their network, personalize their home page etc. After gruel system testing, we will launch it into UAT mode next week. Pre UAT tasks include SSO enabling, Search integration with Endeca and bunch of configuration changes to the JVM settings. Performance testing is pending and that scares me a lot. But our team is confident that they will benchmark before release. I already increased heap size and also made GC parallel to use the two CPU cores.

Next release include enabling wikis, streaming server integration etc. Third step (in 2009) is retiring the old system and migrating the whole data from old system to new system.

Quite thrilled.

Truth and Love, once an year

Executive Compensation

I think if the executive compensation (variable component like bonuses and stock option exercising is spread over long term (around 4 years rather than annual), there may be incentive for these people to think strategically and not gamble with investments. But well..I dont know if free market economy champions agree to such things.

Money is somewhere

Who benefited from Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis? Whatever way I think, it seemed the biggest beneficiaries are realtors, mortgage brokers, builders and building industry? They must have got their cut long back? (and might have lost if they had pumped all their income into the market again).

Home owners - Lost their fortune. Their equity sometimes became negative.
Primary lenders - sold off their loans to secondary lenders. (but may have enough sub-prime mortgages in hand that needs to be disposed off)
Secondary lenders - Sitting on those loans which are getting foreclosed. Nobody will be ready to buy white elephants.
Innovative banking firms - who convert everything from baby puke to old mans worn out shirt into securities and traded them enthusiastically.
AIG like firms - invested in such securities
Shareholders- having positions in such firms
Bond holders - based on the company bonds of such companies
Retirement Investments like 401(k) - who invested in instruments having exposure to such companies and worse mortgage based securities themselves.

So, what is lost is a dream I think. Somewhere money is safe. Our optimism about the growth of money is shattered. Well isn't that not recession?

Black Monday

It happened as expected. After a querter of uncertainty, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. What it means is that their assets are less valued than their liabilities and that they will not get fresh infusion of funding from its creditors(other Wall Street Banks). Now the next steps will be Court appointing an examiner, credit board, filing of all assets and liabilities and plan for reorganization etc. None of the really bring back a historical Wall Street firm. Too bad..

The other news is Meryl Lynch being bought over by BoA. Two major investment banks out of the Wall Street landscape over 1 week end. That is preceeded by Freddie and Fannie merger, and a quarter back Bear Sterns buyout. This is definitely a very crucial time for American (and also global) financial markets.

There will be important lessons that can be learnt from any event. If I predict correct, for this sub-prime mortogage crisis, it could be "Never be too greedy".

On the side note, one friend of mine told last monday that he bought Fannie Mae stock for 2K $ the Friday before the merger weekend. Another friend of friend bought 2.5 K $ worth of LB stock on last Friday. This is nothing but financial stupidity. During such hard year when market is unpredictable, when even pros are scared to trade, what made these amateurs go and buy such stock is greed. Dont fall for it. It is not worth it.

Format Wars

Very interesting read about current wars DC versus AC. I wonder how people will feel about Betamax versus VHS or HDDVD vesus Blueray format wars 100 years from now.

My iphone 3g story

I went to window shopping iPhone and ended up buying one. First I used it for 10 minutes. I felt it very userfriendly compared to my T-Mobile Dash. It's internet browsing experience on wi-fi is second to none. 3-g speed on AT&T is OK. YouTube videos are great. I also found App Store with 100s of free apps very cool. When I called T-Mobile to check if my wife's contract is over, they told that even I am outside contract. Amusing..Then I found that that day is the last day of the current billing cycle. I would call it divine intervention (LOL). I went into store again and encountered a smart orange tshirt clad, what Apple calls 'genius'. He seemed to know all about Apple products and very less about ATT plans which Apple mandates to sell. I bought the iphone and the whole process of credit checking, number porting, and credit card swipe is all done in less than 10 minutes. It was thoroughly professional. No waste of time anywhere. The Geniuses in apple store carry a handy POS terminal  connected over wi-fi with them and come to the customers. Not like in other stores.  Then the genius asked me if I am interested in Apple Care Protection plan (70$) and other accessories like phone case, protection skin(30$ and above) etc which I denied. Then he brought the iphone from inside. The funny thing is the way he held the iphone. I wish I handled my new born son so carefully. With the light in the eyes he gave it to me and encouraged me to ---guess - access internet. Yes, not to make a call. That is where the core strength of iphone lies it seems. I made a call and I found there is a strange echo. I did not like it much. Went to ATT store in the same mall and added my wife to my iphone family plan. This process is also seamless. I played it since last 3 weeks, also used it at NYC, JFK, Subway station, Penn Station etc...I found that the reception is excellent compared to my T-mobile. Though I pay 20$ per month more than what I pay T-mobile, I think it is worth every $.

Coming to features, I will cover push email, web browsing, internet access, ipod, iTunes, you Tube and App Store

Onething I liked in Windows Mobile 6 which I miss in iphone is Exchange GAL.  Usually I do need to get some of my colleagues contact details while I am on the road. Windows Mobile Exchange access used to fetch me addresses from Company Address book. With iphone I get at most my Exchange contacts. It is certainly limiting. Calendar sync is also not as elegant as in WM6.

Web browsing is a treat. I get 3G almost every place I go in Tampa and New York and browsing is fast.  If I check in any hotel, I see wifi. So I am connected. It is a wonderful device in that aspect.

Only thing I miss is tethering iphone to use its 3G with my laptop. ATT seems to be blocking this which is a shame. We already pay for the internet..what if we use that in emergency to check email?

ipod is decent. Not a replacement for your 30GB gadget. But a wonderful alternative. if you organize your music into playlists and shuffle them often with latest ones, I think you can always carry fresh music as well as your favoirites.  It is much better than WM 6's handicapped Windows Media Player Mobile. If only Apple gives a way to insert a MicroSD card, no need to buy an ipod. But Apple knows that and hence they prevent that. Also they may be thinking in cloud terms and keep content away rather than in the device.

iTunes is good. I think I like this version than the big monolith in the laptop for its ease of use and singular nature.

You Tube is a killer app. Wonderful clarity and excellent streaming speed on both 3G and Wifi. 

App Store is another killer app. What a brilliant design? UI is clean, buying an app is a cake walk. Download of app and visual progress bar on the app being downloaded and installed is a testimony of Apple's UI poweress.

I downloaded Twitterrific, CheckPlease, Facebook, Linkedin, Wordpress, Googlr, Wikipanion, Currency, Units, IMPlus and Pandora. All the applications are well designed. 

My complaint - 2 weeks of usage..and none major. Perhaps security because when the users type password, each letter briefly highlights in magnified mode. I always felt that someone is watching my iphone and can read my entire password within few feet away in the line of sight. Creepy...

Otherwise...it is a good gadget...I am a happy iphone user.