All the news channel are writing about the number of deaths in Swine flu in India. Even a minister needs to clarify why she has not visited to the family who lost their dear ones in Swine flu. It feels great that government and media cares so much for us. Wait a minute, this is all theocracy and one part of the story.
The other part is flu claimed more than 50 lives in UP (oh it is not swine flu) and not a national news. Around 40 people died in Cholera in Rayagada district in Odisha. Oh, the cholera is a curable decease and people die in cholera every year. Last year more than 50 people died because of Cholera and 2 years ago more than 200 people died in Cholera. It never became the national news. Reason being????
Getting this news is both expensive as reporters needs to travel to isolated place and far away. People died are not from cities who are customers of the news paper or channel. So they are not increasing the TRP by publishing this news. The people who died are not part of any lobby groups who can pay and publish their news.So it does not have good return to investment.
So none of the news channel are displaying any interest in the flu in UP or cholera in Odisha. The life of (common) man is not the concern for the newspaper rather they are looking for better marketing by sensesalizing news.
Monday, 24 August 2009
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Common men are different than VIP.
When I woke up today morning and started to look at morning newspaper, the headline was SRK was held up at New Jersey Airport. Indian media was against it. And rightly so. It is his last name which caused the problem. SRK is a big man and has connections to make calls to Indian Embassy via Rajeev ratan Shukla. What about common men including Muslim sounding names?
The behavior of Indian Emigration officers are no different. I am siting an example. This is about my friend Roopak. He was working at Zurich and back to India on vacation. He has applied to extend his work permit and came to India for holidays. He was going back to Switzerland. He was back on 5th January and his work permit was expiring on 11 jan. So he had work permit for only 6 days and have already applied for extension. Immigration officers allowed him at Mumbai airport and went to Dubai but he was not allowed to board in Dubai, rather sent back to Delhi.
The story began at Delhi. He was detained there for more than 10 hours (not 2 hours like SRK). He was not allowed to made calls. We knew he was back from Dubai, but not sure about his where abouts, and came out after 10 hours. No food, no contact and nothing.
He is not SRK and treatment from emigration officer was worse than American.
The behavior of Indian Emigration officers are no different. I am siting an example. This is about my friend Roopak. He was working at Zurich and back to India on vacation. He has applied to extend his work permit and came to India for holidays. He was going back to Switzerland. He was back on 5th January and his work permit was expiring on 11 jan. So he had work permit for only 6 days and have already applied for extension. Immigration officers allowed him at Mumbai airport and went to Dubai but he was not allowed to board in Dubai, rather sent back to Delhi.
The story began at Delhi. He was detained there for more than 10 hours (not 2 hours like SRK). He was not allowed to made calls. We knew he was back from Dubai, but not sure about his where abouts, and came out after 10 hours. No food, no contact and nothing.
He is not SRK and treatment from emigration officer was worse than American.
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Why do we need VIP status?
Recently continental air lines frisked former president Mr Kalam. And a lot of fuss from media and central government about the same is going on.
What is the big deal about it? Should not India and press respect each nation's right to secure herself? We can say some rule is wrong or abide by the rule. Why do we need to say, the rule is ok, but it does not apply to VVIPs? Will the press and government react in the same way had it been done to a common man? I hope they wont.
Some people say Mr Kalam is our national pride. I am hundred percent agree with them. But don't agree with them when they claim national pride should get concession and need a different rule.
How do we ensure our pride? By treating US citizens in the same way. Whether it is Bill Clinton or George Bush, they need to be frisked at the airport. And no VVIP treatment to them.their bag needs to go through normal customs et al. We can say we go by rules, in stead of asking them to relax their rules for our VVIP.
Let us look at a hypothetical situation. US relaxed rules for Indian VVIPs. An Indian VVIP took arms by her wish or compulsion by terrorists and same is used for another 9/11 like situation. Who is going to gain from it? Only the terrorists. We have an incredible record of mishandling terrorists and buckling under the pressure. Why will any other country want to be affected because of our weakness?
Is congress talking about Aam Aadmi? Dal has touched Rs 100 per kg. In stead of putting a master plan to arrest the price rise, the government is putting too much on a non issue.
What is the big deal about it? Should not India and press respect each nation's right to secure herself? We can say some rule is wrong or abide by the rule. Why do we need to say, the rule is ok, but it does not apply to VVIPs? Will the press and government react in the same way had it been done to a common man? I hope they wont.
Some people say Mr Kalam is our national pride. I am hundred percent agree with them. But don't agree with them when they claim national pride should get concession and need a different rule.
How do we ensure our pride? By treating US citizens in the same way. Whether it is Bill Clinton or George Bush, they need to be frisked at the airport. And no VVIP treatment to them.their bag needs to go through normal customs et al. We can say we go by rules, in stead of asking them to relax their rules for our VVIP.
Let us look at a hypothetical situation. US relaxed rules for Indian VVIPs. An Indian VVIP took arms by her wish or compulsion by terrorists and same is used for another 9/11 like situation. Who is going to gain from it? Only the terrorists. We have an incredible record of mishandling terrorists and buckling under the pressure. Why will any other country want to be affected because of our weakness?
Is congress talking about Aam Aadmi? Dal has touched Rs 100 per kg. In stead of putting a master plan to arrest the price rise, the government is putting too much on a non issue.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
When you can't change the rule change the game
When Mr Jerry Rao left Citicorp, he was part of Citi’s Operating Review Group – the top 50 managers in the company. He found he was among the top 50, but did not foresee to be among the top 10 in near future. Rather as the Head of the Development Division of Citicorp and Chairman and CEO of Transaction Technology, he saw tremendous opportunity for IT Service company. He founded his own company MphasiS.
As a thumb rule, young and smaller companies grow at a faster pace than the bigger ones. In 2005 when the big companies Wipro/Infosys/TCS were growing at faster pace than their companies like MphasiS, he decided to merge his brain child with bigger name EDS.
As a thumb rule, young and smaller companies grow at a faster pace than the bigger ones. In 2005 when the big companies Wipro/Infosys/TCS were growing at faster pace than their companies like MphasiS, he decided to merge his brain child with bigger name EDS.
Monday, 13 July 2009
Importance of Correlation
This is not a pure technology blog. Neither is it a blog which is based on some other concept. Rather this addresses how we can map technology and common sense for better understanding of technology.
I am spending considerable amount of my time in interviewing candidates. The range of candidates goes from a software engineer to a technical architect. I found most of them are inept in concept of synchronization. This is typical answers I got from the interview.
Q: Do you know synchronization in java
A: Yes. It is used to restrict access to a resource. When code enters synchronized block, others won't be able to access the resource.
Q: What is resource
In a synchronized method, it is the method and in a synchronized block, it is the block. When one thread enters the block of code other thread waits for it.
Q: Can two threads access two different synchronized methods of the same object at the same time?
A: Yes
Q: can two threads access same synchronized methods of two objects of the same class at the same time?
A: No. because the method has been blocked by the first thread.
I asked the same set of questions to one interviewee. When I get the repeated wrong answers, I thought of making him learn.
I showed him a pen and said you can write using it, throw it or see it. So what is the class here?
A: Pen (Nouns are classes and verbs are methods)
What are the methods?
A: see, throw, write
Q: What should be synchronized?
A: write and throw (as thread needs exclusive access to the resource)
Q: What is resource here?
A: Pen (the object)
Q: Who are the threads?
A: I am, and you can be another
So he is clear about synchronization, and he is able to explain synchronization as he can throw the pen that he is writing, and can't write or throw a pen I am writing but can see it. He and I can write on two different pens at the same time and write is not the resource but pen is the resource. I think he understood synchronization from that day.
Synchronization is an example, but correlation works much more than that. Correlating application programming and data modeling gave birth to ORM technologies. One who can correlate Business idea with technology provides good technology solutions.
I am spending considerable amount of my time in interviewing candidates. The range of candidates goes from a software engineer to a technical architect. I found most of them are inept in concept of synchronization. This is typical answers I got from the interview.
Q: Do you know synchronization in java
A: Yes. It is used to restrict access to a resource. When code enters synchronized block, others won't be able to access the resource.
Q: What is resource
In a synchronized method, it is the method and in a synchronized block, it is the block. When one thread enters the block of code other thread waits for it.
Q: Can two threads access two different synchronized methods of the same object at the same time?
A: Yes
Q: can two threads access same synchronized methods of two objects of the same class at the same time?
A: No. because the method has been blocked by the first thread.
I asked the same set of questions to one interviewee. When I get the repeated wrong answers, I thought of making him learn.
I showed him a pen and said you can write using it, throw it or see it. So what is the class here?
A: Pen (Nouns are classes and verbs are methods)
What are the methods?
A: see, throw, write
Q: What should be synchronized?
A: write and throw (as thread needs exclusive access to the resource)
Q: What is resource here?
A: Pen (the object)
Q: Who are the threads?
A: I am, and you can be another
So he is clear about synchronization, and he is able to explain synchronization as he can throw the pen that he is writing, and can't write or throw a pen I am writing but can see it. He and I can write on two different pens at the same time and write is not the resource but pen is the resource. I think he understood synchronization from that day.
Synchronization is an example, but correlation works much more than that. Correlating application programming and data modeling gave birth to ORM technologies. One who can correlate Business idea with technology provides good technology solutions.
Friday, 26 June 2009
An Alternate Pricing Model
I was back to India from USA in 2007. I was looking for a job change to get a better salary. So I put my resume in couple of job sites. The market was good, so I was getting enough calls for interview. I got a call from one of top job sites. He checked my qualification, experience CTC etc. He said I was underpaid for my qualification, and worth almost double the salary I was making. I was interested to know what I would do to get the salary doubled.
The consultant came up with ideas like resume writing service with Rs x, resume flashing for another Rs y, sending resume to consultants with Rs Z etc. And he will provide me the salary statistics and will forward my resume only to consultants who look at high paying jobs.
I felt the consultant was genuine. My resume could have been improved. Job search in not only search of a talent, but talent within right time. So applying at right time would enhance my job prospective. However I was not sure to invest on it without ensuring any return.
I proposed her an alternative model. I would avail her services and will only use her service for my job search. If it worked for me and I get an offer, then I would pay 10% of anything excess of 20% annual hike. In that case she gets more money if I get a 30% hike. And would have got 8 times what she charged for her service in case my salary was doubled. But she did not agree to my terms.
I got a job with a nice hike without her service.She lost an customer and I loose her service.I understand why she did not agree to my terms, but failed to understand why they do not think of an alternative business model.
I am not sure if job portals have thought about alternate pricing model, but software services companies do. Last weak I was going though a top out sourcing Company in India, and it has a pricing model based on the dollars saved in addition to fixed price and Time and Money model.
Dollars saved model works good during recession and is a win-win situation for both client and service provider. Client gets service at low cost and pays a part of its benefit. So its actual cost was less than what it would have been without the service. Service provider gets service contract order during recession.
The consultant came up with ideas like resume writing service with Rs x, resume flashing for another Rs y, sending resume to consultants with Rs Z etc. And he will provide me the salary statistics and will forward my resume only to consultants who look at high paying jobs.
I felt the consultant was genuine. My resume could have been improved. Job search in not only search of a talent, but talent within right time. So applying at right time would enhance my job prospective. However I was not sure to invest on it without ensuring any return.
I proposed her an alternative model. I would avail her services and will only use her service for my job search. If it worked for me and I get an offer, then I would pay 10% of anything excess of 20% annual hike. In that case she gets more money if I get a 30% hike. And would have got 8 times what she charged for her service in case my salary was doubled. But she did not agree to my terms.
I got a job with a nice hike without her service.She lost an customer and I loose her service.I understand why she did not agree to my terms, but failed to understand why they do not think of an alternative business model.
I am not sure if job portals have thought about alternate pricing model, but software services companies do. Last weak I was going though a top out sourcing Company in India, and it has a pricing model based on the dollars saved in addition to fixed price and Time and Money model.
Dollars saved model works good during recession and is a win-win situation for both client and service provider. Client gets service at low cost and pays a part of its benefit. So its actual cost was less than what it would have been without the service. Service provider gets service contract order during recession.
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Fallacy of Net Run Rate (NRR)
Net Run Rate plays a crucial role in cricket. Who has a better run rate always won with more runs. However it is not the case.
Net run rate = (total run scored/total over faced) - (total runs conceded/total over bowled)
Let us assume there are 2 matches between A and B in 20/20
Match1: A 200 (in 20 overs) B 99 (in 20 overs)
Match2: A 99 (in 20 overs) B 100(in 10 overs)
By looking at the result it looks B won with as big margin in 2nd match as A won in the first match. So NRR should be 0 for both A and B
Wait for a minute. Put the formula above
NRR of A = (299/40)-(199/30)=7.475-6.633=0.842
NRR of B = -0.842
Isn't it biased? Let us look at some real life picture. 2009 IPL's last league match Bangalore vs Hyderabad. In that match Hyderabad will be out from the semifinal, if Bangalore wins by 200 runs but will be in if Hyderabad bats first. If Hyd scores 100 and Bangalore is able to make it in 3 overs, still Hyd would have been in the semifinal.
When I look at the formula it looks decent, and seems like it does justice to calculating which team wins by a decent margin. However when I calculate it favors the team which bats first (most of the time).
That is because when a team which bats second does not bat its full quota (if it wins). So in winning cases, its partial over is calculated (100 runs and 10 overs as per example) where as team which bats first its full quota is taken into consideration.
So to make NRR fair to the team batting second, a team should play its full quota or calculate its score using DL.
Net run rate = (total run scored/total over faced) - (total runs conceded/total over bowled)
Let us assume there are 2 matches between A and B in 20/20
Match1: A 200 (in 20 overs) B 99 (in 20 overs)
Match2: A 99 (in 20 overs) B 100(in 10 overs)
By looking at the result it looks B won with as big margin in 2nd match as A won in the first match. So NRR should be 0 for both A and B
Wait for a minute. Put the formula above
NRR of A = (299/40)-(199/30)=7.475-6.633=0.842
NRR of B = -0.842
Isn't it biased? Let us look at some real life picture. 2009 IPL's last league match Bangalore vs Hyderabad. In that match Hyderabad will be out from the semifinal, if Bangalore wins by 200 runs but will be in if Hyderabad bats first. If Hyd scores 100 and Bangalore is able to make it in 3 overs, still Hyd would have been in the semifinal.
When I look at the formula it looks decent, and seems like it does justice to calculating which team wins by a decent margin. However when I calculate it favors the team which bats first (most of the time).
That is because when a team which bats second does not bat its full quota (if it wins). So in winning cases, its partial over is calculated (100 runs and 10 overs as per example) where as team which bats first its full quota is taken into consideration.
So to make NRR fair to the team batting second, a team should play its full quota or calculate its score using DL.
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