10 steps backwards....Kill Merit

India was a castist society. Naturally some castes were socially downtrodden. Hinduism, particularly priest community (brahmins) and ruling classes like Kings, Reddys, Chowdaries did nothing special to reform the society as it served their vested interests.

When India became independent in 1947, some polititians like Dr. B.R Ambedkar wanted a quick means to uplift the downtrodden and bring them to mainstream society. The scheme they devised is "Reservations in jobs, education etc". It definitely did wonders and would have worked well if vested polititians did not meddle into the process. All these years, constitution was ammended multiple times and the % of seats allocated to dalts/ OBCs are increased. Most of the times to create vote bank politics.

Did these reservations achieve what they are supposed to achive. I say yes and no. Today there are 3rd/ 4th generation backward caste families enjoying the reservations even though they are in a socially enviable position than many other forward caste families. Personally I know many OBCs who are much much wealthy (some are millionares), but will bypass the merit and enter educational institutes through this short cut. Dalits is a different issue. They may need more reforms (not necessarily reservations).

And there is no dignity in a Dalit/OBC student entering an IIT with 25% less score than their forward caste counterpart.

I feel Dalits and other backward caste communities should fight against the Indian Government policy and demand dignity, respect and provide equal opportunity. They should demand world class primary education, health benefits and financial security, scholarships.

To add more fuel to the fire, Congress politicians from AP are trying to create some quota to Muslims.

Respect merit.
Save Dalits/ OBCs dignity.
Don't become vote banks.

Minimalism

I feel that most of the problems could be solved by adapting minimalism in our life style. It starts with simple things in life.

Take for instance, cell phone. Why buy a phone with 120 features which we may never use in our day-to-day. I agree a cell phone should have a good phonebook, caller list, > 1MB camera, bluetooth. But why that crappy currency controller.

I see some of the projects picking an app server even if the current and future requirements doesnt demand? While picking something like JBoss which can be slimmed down is a good choice, why go for a full stack J2EE container for creating a read-most website with few CRUD ops?

Minimalism means wearing less jewelery, going for unbranded quality apparel, eating less fat, less cal food, using bike for pedalling to work instead of driving a full-sized SUV burning adding to global warming, using less resources and conserving.

It may sound a step backwards and going back into stone age. But it is a step in the right direction. True power and progress means not wasting when there is no need. Artificial needs created by marketing buzz should not control one's life.

My photography, gear etc

I am an amateur photographer and I am a serious amateur. I love the art as well as technique. My trips exclusively for photography are

Yelagiri Hills (2003 Feb)
Moonar (2003 June)
Everglades (2003 Dec and 2004 May)
New York (Nov 2004)
Niagara Falls (Oct 2005)
Clearwater, Caladesi Island, Honeymoon Island, Fort De Soto Part etc
Numerous trails in and around Tampa

I was using film (Nikon F80) until 2004 December. Then I got serious in digital and went for Nikon D70.

For the best source of reviews, technique and cameras you can check the site
Ken Rockwell

Ken Rockwell's passion for life reflects in his work and in his website. He never hesitates to call spade a spade. I recommend to bookmark his site. Also support him by donating however smaller/ bigger you can. I know how hard it is for one individual to host a website and keep it current.

Air France New Commercial

I really liked this new online commercial. Click this Air France

JNTU Engineering College Anantapur

I am an alumni of JNTU College of Engineering, Ananatapur, AP, India. When I joined MCA program in late 1996, the college was in pathos. Infrastructure was bad, library was pathetic, lecturers were average, students used to be divided into Reddy and Kamma commmunities. Scheduled castes used to live in a separate hostel block called Yellow Block (YB). There used to be caste associations amongst students with strategic support from some professors. It used to be everything that an educational institute cannot be.
(I liked the hostel food particularly breakfast used to be great..yummy)

I heard that things improved by leaps and bounds now. It is perhaps due to IT boom, opened up industry-academia partnerships, improved placement record etc. I wish all current and future students great luck and like to see that historic institution back to the state it used to be few decades back. (it is one of the oldest engineering colleges in India).

Best Andhra Food Blog Site

I accidentally encountered Indira's http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/ while googling for "uggani" or "buggani" one authentic Anantapur rural delicacy made of puffed rice. After that, I became a regular visitor of that site. The best part of that site is the photos. Amazing sharpnest and themed around color.

I whole heartedly wish Indira to continue her hobby.

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2

Last night I downloaded IE 7 Beta and installed the same. I felt so excited about the multiple tab feature. The first thing I did was opened second tab and tried to enter an URL address...BOOM IE crashed!! I tried multiple times and it did not recover. Rebooted my laptop, but no use, Finally I decided to try their free support from Microsoft on Saturday morning. Will see whether they can solve the problem.

So much for their caption " We heard you , you wanted it easier and more secure". In fact I wanted it to be reliable without a crash. For me that is #1 priority. My Firefox never ever crashed. I have been using it for the past 2 years.

Apart from these hiccups (unresolved yet), The browser is cool. I particularly liked these features
a) Simplified look and feel
b) Feed grabber
c) Printing (I love this much needed feature)

MS definitely improved IE in leaps and bounds.

I really wish them luck for Vista (when it really sees light of the day. Easter 2007??)

IE 7 Home Page - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx


On 04/29/2006, I called free IE 7 support and told them situation. They promptly gave me the solution they have been giving since MS started business - uninstall and reinstall the software. I already did that. So they advised me to continue using IE 6. Wondeful. I love my Firefox even more from now.

Spring Evening, Tampa, FL

Spring evenings are great in Florida West Coast. When the sun is going down, cool breeze from the gulf soothes the souls. Picture taken when we went out for a stroll on a lazy Sunday evening.

Scott Dixon's Machine

Mechanics working on Scott Dixon's car on 04/01/2006. 

Honda GP of St Pete, FL

Danica Patrick, the only woman driver in INDY Series, signing autographs at St. Petersburg, Fl.

Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg, FL

It is an exhillarating experience to race. May be a little lesser to watch but neverthless quite thrilling. It is our first live race. Set in our own backyard, streets of St. Petersburg, FL.

Chillabration Cake from Dairy Queen for my princess Sandhya on her birthday. 

AJAX - Web Clustering

1) Our traditional web development is completely based on a request-response model. Even the post back model of Java Server Faces and ASP.NET is a request-response model where the entire page is rendered. Until 2003, if we want a portion of a web page to be rendered based on the user’s inputs, we designed with IFrames using div tags. Even that is a request-response model often with predictable loads on the server.
Example - Hotmail/ Yahoo mail. which renders the entire page for every request.

2) Now with AJAX, the request/response model is even fine grained with multiple XmlHttpRequest s between client and server within a single use case. The advantage is much better user experience with a real time feel to the user. User will be obviously happy and that means repeated business for our clients. But the real challenge is for architecting such website. We have to be careful in ensuring the performance. Web Clustering plays an important role in this. Our goal for clustering is now to ensure high reliability not just high availability. For all busy websites we design using AJAX, we need keep this option in the back of our minds.
Example - GMail/ Google Earth etc, I believethat Outlook Web Access(OWA) used XmlHttpRequest well before the word AJAX was coined.

Share a dream

Spectacular..We visited Disney parks last weekend. It's an amazing creation of work. Truly, the pride of Florida. So well maintained, friendly staff, wonderful food, great scenic photoops with classic parades. It's a once-in-a-life-time experience. 

Tampa Bay Downs, Race Track Road

This is third time I visited Tampa Bay Downs. Nothing changed. Same races, same punters, people losing money, making fortunes, shouting their favourite horses names... But there is something about this sport if we keep the betting part aside. Horses, Jockeys, Trainers, Owners, Breeders taming these wild animals, training them to race against each other, year after year, paying tribute to this ancient sport. It's exhllarating..and joy to watch the race.

Majjiga Pulusu (Khadi)

This is one of my favourite dishes. Last night, I observed Boodida Gummadikaayalu at the local Indian Grocery. I immly called my mummy and asked her for this recipe. And within an hour a very tasty dish is ready.

Preparation Time : 30 minutes
Serves : 3 ( serves 4 with Parathas)

Ingredients:
For Masala Paste:
2 tbl spoons Dhania seeds
2 tbl spoons Channa Dal
1 tbl spoon poppy seeds (khus-khus)
4 green chillies
4 sun-dried red chillies
1 inch ginger
1 garlic pod
1/2 tbl spoon jeera seeds
1/2 cup fresh shredded coconut
1 tbl spoon turmeric

For Main Dish
Also keep aside 2 cups curds (better if sour curds)
1 small piece Ash Guard ( ash pumpkin or boodida gummadi kaaya)
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves
1 tbl spoon Fenugreek Seeds

Preparation:
Soak all masala items (except shredded coconut) in water for 10 minutes. Then add coconut and make a coarse paste. Add this paste and turmeric to curds and mix thoroughly. Keep this aside.

Pressure cook pumpkin pieces (just for one whistle). Add the pumpkin pieces to the curds mix and bring it to one boil. Switch off the heat and keep it aside. (It should be moved off from any heat source or else water will come out of the vegetables. Dont even keep the vessel on the switched off burner).

Seasoning: Heat some oil. Add mustard, jeera and fenugreek seeds. Fenugreek seeds should be fully roasted (should turn black). At the end add some curry leaves to the seasoning and mix it with the pulusu.

Garnish with Coriander leaves.

Keep it aside for 30 minutes. Fenugreek seeds will be soaked.

Tasty Majjiga Pulusu is ready!!!

It is best side for hot rice with toor dhal (mudda pappu) and little Ghee. Goes well with Aloo Paratha or plain paratha too.

I did just like Mummy adviced and it came out extremely well.

Instead of Ash Pumpkin, the following vegetables can be used.
Carrot Pieces, Munakkayalu (Drum Stick Pieces), Arati kaaya (Raw Plantain) - pressure cook for 1 whistle.

Bendakaayalu (Okra/ Bhendi) - fry in little oil until sides turn black - never pressure cook Bhendi pieces.

In Nellore, at the famous Komala Vilas Restaurant, they add Tomatos also. If the curds are not fresh, we can try tomatoes to get that a tinge of tartness. 

Honeymoon Island, Palm Harbor, Florida, United States 

Clearwater Beach, Florida, Unites States 

Enterprise Architect Journey

There are always experiences in both career and life..some will be life changing.

One year back, I read a book "To Kill A Mocking Bird". A scene when the character Atticus Finch kills a mad dog. That makes him a larger-than-life character in the eyes of his 9 year old daughter Scout. It's brilliant. It shook my notion of heroes amongst the characters... I became a fan of Harper Lee

Something like that happened when I started my Enterprise Architect Certification journey. I was very skeptal as this certification is successfully achieved by many who has not even an iota of knowledge about enterprise architectures. But, as I started going through tonnes of material for preparation and hours I am going to put in the assignment, I felt extremely content.

In my job, many times I okayed many designs, even if it is against my conviction. (often political reasons). With this SCEA Part 2 assignment, I have an opportunity to architect a solution with the complete freedom as my heart feels.

We will see how it goes.

And BTW another book I read today is mesmerizing - "Patterns Of Enterprise Application Architecture" - Martin Fowler

Change or get doomed

How fast can IT management respond to new methodologies?

IT Services companies should continously strive to improve the SDLC process. Use modern paradigms like eXtreme Programming, Continous Integration etc.

Evolve...dudes.....fastttt