Today when I reached office, my manager called me to look into a production issue. We were getting some MemoryOutOfBound error. He was sure that application was not huge and does not use much memory, so the error should be something else than memory not being available.
We tweaked the settings to get the dump of the heap. And systems were failing regularly. Once we bounce the server, server starts working and another server fails in 15-20 minutes. I checked memory status using jmap, and heap size was no where close to 2 GB. Development tech lead told that the system was working fine when may heap size was 512 mb in stead of 2 GB, so we reverted back to 512 mb. And suddenly it started working. And that was right, reducing heap size helped. The reason was,
We were using a 32 bit system with 4 GB memory. OS was using 2 GB for its internal usage. When we provide 2 GB for JVM heap, there were little memory left for any native calls such as creating OS thread, opening a socket etc. And we used to get MemoryOutOfBound error. Reducing it to 512 MB helped.
Monday, 26 October 2009
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Paid to make mistake
In one of the leadership training, the trainer said we are paid to make mistake! I did not agree with him. How can one be paid to make mistake? I am paid to write good software and he is paid to provide appropriate training. And neither he nor I worth the salary if we don't do our job well. How are we paid to make mistake? He clarified, we are paid to make mistake and not for not doing our tasks. He explained his view:
Man is to err and will make mistake. We do mistake, even Vivek Paul makes mistake. But we should not repeat our mistakes. We should learn from mistakes. Anybody who makes and repeats mistake needs to be fired (too harsh, isn't it?). So one has the option of working in the comfort zone and not making any mistake or stretching her ability and do something new and may make mistake. And we are all paid to grow and stretch ourselves, do new things which is out of our comfort zone and make mistakes.
I was reading Michael Nygard's Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software (Pragmatic Programmers). He also agreed with the trainer. He claims he does make mistake, but all the mistakes are unique. Once he learns about a mistake, he ensures that it does not happen twice. And as a cynic he expects something will go wrong in the production.
I got a different prospective from my manager. He at certain cases could have put the blame on certain mistakes on some of the team members including me. In stead he took the responsibility and ensured that the mistake did not happen again. It is not about blaming others but owning the mistake, fixing it and moving forward ensuring it does not happen again.
Man is to err and will make mistake. We do mistake, even Vivek Paul makes mistake. But we should not repeat our mistakes. We should learn from mistakes. Anybody who makes and repeats mistake needs to be fired (too harsh, isn't it?). So one has the option of working in the comfort zone and not making any mistake or stretching her ability and do something new and may make mistake. And we are all paid to grow and stretch ourselves, do new things which is out of our comfort zone and make mistakes.
I was reading Michael Nygard's Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software (Pragmatic Programmers). He also agreed with the trainer. He claims he does make mistake, but all the mistakes are unique. Once he learns about a mistake, he ensures that it does not happen twice. And as a cynic he expects something will go wrong in the production.
I got a different prospective from my manager. He at certain cases could have put the blame on certain mistakes on some of the team members including me. In stead he took the responsibility and ensured that the mistake did not happen again. It is not about blaming others but owning the mistake, fixing it and moving forward ensuring it does not happen again.
Doing it right at right time
I am following cricket like most Indians. Currently I am following CLT20. Victoria played 4 matches won 2 and lost 2 matches, so does Delhi and Bangalore. But Victoria went to semifinal where as Bangalore and Delhi were knocked out. Though Victoria have better run rate than either Delhi or Bangalore, it went to semifinal based on points without considering the run rate. I was looking into the All Star 11 It has 3 players from Bangalore, 2 from Delhi and only one from Victoria (so does 1 from Cape Cobra and New South Wales). So despite showing better individual brilliance and 2 teams have been knocked out of the tournament.
Both Delhi and Bangalore knocked out because they lost the group match to a team which went to the next round. So they went to the next round but with 0 points. Victoria lost a match but to a team which was eliminated from the group stage. That was the differentiator between Victoria and other teams.
So it is not only a mistake (loosing a match) but the mistake which got added (carried forward points) costed Bangalore and Delhi.
Both Delhi and Bangalore knocked out because they lost the group match to a team which went to the next round. So they went to the next round but with 0 points. Victoria lost a match but to a team which was eliminated from the group stage. That was the differentiator between Victoria and other teams.
So it is not only a mistake (loosing a match) but the mistake which got added (carried forward points) costed Bangalore and Delhi.
Friday, 25 September 2009
When the student is ready the master appears
As per the Indian mythology Arjuna is one of the best students. He is his guru Drona's favorite student. Krishna is the ultimate source of knowledge. He was Lord Vishnu himself, and available to Arjuna 24*7 as a friend, well wisher and god. Geeta is the master piece a conversation between Arjuna and Krishna. Tons of articles are available to understand Geeta. I am neither an expert in Geeta nor trying to explain Geeta.
Why did Krishna choose to explain it to Arjuna? Why did he choose to explain just before the mahabharat war? Was Arjuna fool or coward, who wanted to avoid the war?
Arjuna was definitely neither coward nor fool. He was one of the smartest person and best student of his teacher. He was brave and energetic and had proved it enough time. Krishna choose to explain Arjuna and not anybody else, because none other bothered about it. Probable none else had the intelligence and foresight to ask such questions. As questions are from Arjuna, Krishna choose to explain Arjuna instead of everybody. Arjuna did not have the ability to see his Viswaroop, he was able to see it after gifted with Divya chakshyu. So others were not clear about their task, but were not knowledgeable enough to ask such questions or understand the answer. So Krishna explained it to Arjuna.
Krishna explained it during war because Arjuna had the confusion during war. He did not ask it earlier, so Krishna did not explain it earlier.
So krishna the best friend, brother in law, well wisher and supreme lord of Arjuna is ready to answer question only when Arjuna has questions. So its not the presence of the master or getting a master but readiness of the student and having appropriate question can create a master piece.
Why did Krishna choose to explain it to Arjuna? Why did he choose to explain just before the mahabharat war? Was Arjuna fool or coward, who wanted to avoid the war?
Arjuna was definitely neither coward nor fool. He was one of the smartest person and best student of his teacher. He was brave and energetic and had proved it enough time. Krishna choose to explain Arjuna and not anybody else, because none other bothered about it. Probable none else had the intelligence and foresight to ask such questions. As questions are from Arjuna, Krishna choose to explain Arjuna instead of everybody. Arjuna did not have the ability to see his Viswaroop, he was able to see it after gifted with Divya chakshyu. So others were not clear about their task, but were not knowledgeable enough to ask such questions or understand the answer. So Krishna explained it to Arjuna.
Krishna explained it during war because Arjuna had the confusion during war. He did not ask it earlier, so Krishna did not explain it earlier.
So krishna the best friend, brother in law, well wisher and supreme lord of Arjuna is ready to answer question only when Arjuna has questions. So its not the presence of the master or getting a master but readiness of the student and having appropriate question can create a master piece.
Monday, 21 September 2009
Don't always follow what your Boss says...
rather always do what she wants. I am not going to discuss why you should follow this, and a couple of case studies. The name of the company and individuals have changed to protect the privacy.
It is important to follow the BOSS. Everybody wants loyal people who she can rely on. But to be reliable one sometimes needs to out smart her boss, as boss might not have all the information that she has. I am providing a couple of case studies where following the boss did harm the employer AND/OR not following the boss worked.
CASE STUDY 1: Sam and Sonia worked at a IT service company and had a tough American customer. They were good in application programming and technology, but did not know the Investment banking. Because of their lack of domain knowledge and Indian ascent they were facing problem in handling costumer during post production support. Their Manager learned about the project and gave a short term and a long term solution. He asked them to enroll for Investment Banking 101 and spoken English in US ascent course as a long term solution and asked to twist the tongue so that it will be more US like ascent and read more about portfolio and equity (as their project is based on Portfolio) for short term resolution. Sam followed his Boss's advice religiously with
little success. Sonia did not do what exactly her boss said, but customer called their boss and asked only Sonia to be their point of contact. In return Sonia got a good appraisal and promotion. What did Sonia do? She discovered that customer was able to understand the English of Raj, who is deputed at customer location. She found out that it is not their ascent but speed which is causing the communication gap. So she tried to speak slowly where as Sam tried to speak in an unknown ascent (twisting tongue). Sam was busy reading about portfolio where as Sonia mastered the flow of the application and what exactly is bothering customer. She found out customer was unhappy because the page takes 30 seconds to load the page when an user logs in and what can be done to reduce it when Sam was reading about Equity Portfolio etc. She was able to understand customer and her requirement. So she was able to provide resolution.
So she got good appraisal, hike and a promotion.
Case study 2: Sam was deputed to customer place in London. In one of the REAL TIME trading application response time was more than 2 minutes at sometimes and mostly within 2 seconds. The requirements signed by client and service provider claims it to be 2 seconds. SLA claims any such problem in production must be resolved in 15 minutes, and in case it does not get resolved, it gets escalated and reaches VP level within 24 hours. The application was working fine at development and UAT environment but did take more time during production. Level 1 support was unable to solve the problem in 15 minutes, so the management called Sam and Harry who is known for their technical brilliance to resolve it. Their manager asked them to tune the queries what might be the most probable reason for the problem. Harry tuned the queries so the response time is within 1 second most of the time but close to 2 minutes during peak load time. Sam instead of tuning the queries checked the application log and did some profiling using the tools available. He figured out that JVM was actually not tuned for their requirement. So GC sometimes takes a long pause during peak load, and there are some physical memory leaks, which affects performance during peak load. He tuned the JVM parameters and asked for a hot fix for the memory leak. This happened in 2007 when software market was good, and market started slowing down in 2008, so client wanted only one person at London, and they have asked for Sam though Harry is senior to Sam.
It is important to follow the BOSS. Everybody wants loyal people who she can rely on. But to be reliable one sometimes needs to out smart her boss, as boss might not have all the information that she has. I am providing a couple of case studies where following the boss did harm the employer AND/OR not following the boss worked.
CASE STUDY 1: Sam and Sonia worked at a IT service company and had a tough American customer. They were good in application programming and technology, but did not know the Investment banking. Because of their lack of domain knowledge and Indian ascent they were facing problem in handling costumer during post production support. Their Manager learned about the project and gave a short term and a long term solution. He asked them to enroll for Investment Banking 101 and spoken English in US ascent course as a long term solution and asked to twist the tongue so that it will be more US like ascent and read more about portfolio and equity (as their project is based on Portfolio) for short term resolution. Sam followed his Boss's advice religiously with
little success. Sonia did not do what exactly her boss said, but customer called their boss and asked only Sonia to be their point of contact. In return Sonia got a good appraisal and promotion. What did Sonia do? She discovered that customer was able to understand the English of Raj, who is deputed at customer location. She found out that it is not their ascent but speed which is causing the communication gap. So she tried to speak slowly where as Sam tried to speak in an unknown ascent (twisting tongue). Sam was busy reading about portfolio where as Sonia mastered the flow of the application and what exactly is bothering customer. She found out customer was unhappy because the page takes 30 seconds to load the page when an user logs in and what can be done to reduce it when Sam was reading about Equity Portfolio etc. She was able to understand customer and her requirement. So she was able to provide resolution.
So she got good appraisal, hike and a promotion.
Case study 2: Sam was deputed to customer place in London. In one of the REAL TIME trading application response time was more than 2 minutes at sometimes and mostly within 2 seconds. The requirements signed by client and service provider claims it to be 2 seconds. SLA claims any such problem in production must be resolved in 15 minutes, and in case it does not get resolved, it gets escalated and reaches VP level within 24 hours. The application was working fine at development and UAT environment but did take more time during production. Level 1 support was unable to solve the problem in 15 minutes, so the management called Sam and Harry who is known for their technical brilliance to resolve it. Their manager asked them to tune the queries what might be the most probable reason for the problem. Harry tuned the queries so the response time is within 1 second most of the time but close to 2 minutes during peak load time. Sam instead of tuning the queries checked the application log and did some profiling using the tools available. He figured out that JVM was actually not tuned for their requirement. So GC sometimes takes a long pause during peak load, and there are some physical memory leaks, which affects performance during peak load. He tuned the JVM parameters and asked for a hot fix for the memory leak. This happened in 2007 when software market was good, and market started slowing down in 2008, so client wanted only one person at London, and they have asked for Sam though Harry is senior to Sam.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Career Coaching @ India
Since last 7-8 years I have been working with Indian job market directly or indirectly. I have changed job thrice in my career and have advised numerous people on what to do and what not to on numerous occasions. Some of the so called advised are right where as most of them lacked the in depth understanding. At times, I was eager to take help of an expert, what is right career for me. Am I doing right or just moving with the flow of the stream? What makes an ideal career for somebody? I wanted to discuss the same with some expert. I have browsed through the recruitment portals. These are a few observations:
The sites are meant for the company that is recruiting. They can put forward their requirement and one who is looking for job can look forward getting it. They provide services such as resume writing, resume flash etc. but it is limited in getting a job. It lacked understanding the candidate, her strengths and weaknesses, her passion, love and desire. It does not have any test to see what she likes most. It neither speaks about setting goal and achieving them, rather it was all about here is an opening XYZ, and whether she will fit in. And this may give her an salary increment of y percentage. The higher the y, the sweater it is. Even some consultants claim they are not interested for the profiles put in job sites such as Naukri and Monster.
I was in a dilemma whether to continue my job in IT or move to education. Should I pursue Ph.D or MBA or nothing at all? Should I go for full time or part time one? And many more questions. I was ready to pay for the service. In return I would get call from XYZ company for abc post. I was not not sure if I was interested in any of those companies or positions. I think many other people might have faced the same situation.
I was checking with my friends and juniors about what they do, what they want to do, and what is their plan after 5-10 years and are they happy with their job, what is their plan to achieve them. I might not have recorded them all and have taken incorrect samples. So the result might be unscientific, but most answers are like this. I am doing dev/testing/support. I want to be a manager/technical after 5 years. I am satisfied/unsatisfied/somehow satisfied with my current job. I don't know how to achieve my goal.
In India there are lots of people who are not sure about their career. They are not sure about what they like, what makes them happy, what they need to do to achieve it. If they say they want a change, most probable they will get similar job profile. So there is a huge scope for career consultants (not recruiters) in India.
Why does India lack career consultants? I can think of 3 reasons.
1) Expertise required for career coach: It may be a tough job. It is easier to search in a job portal for couple of key word and call couple of guys for an interview than understanding a human being.
2)Less Revenue: When a recruiter helps recruiting a candidate for a company, she gets x percentage of the annual gross salary of the candidate. How much a career consultant get?
3) A new field of expertise: Job search is new, but coaching is new concept. As India is adopting from west, so India may get career coaches in future.
In a nutshell India does not have effective career coaching. It has a huge potential for career coaches. Currently India does not have coaches because of the revenue model but will expand.
The sites are meant for the company that is recruiting. They can put forward their requirement and one who is looking for job can look forward getting it. They provide services such as resume writing, resume flash etc. but it is limited in getting a job. It lacked understanding the candidate, her strengths and weaknesses, her passion, love and desire. It does not have any test to see what she likes most. It neither speaks about setting goal and achieving them, rather it was all about here is an opening XYZ, and whether she will fit in. And this may give her an salary increment of y percentage. The higher the y, the sweater it is. Even some consultants claim they are not interested for the profiles put in job sites such as Naukri and Monster.
I was in a dilemma whether to continue my job in IT or move to education. Should I pursue Ph.D or MBA or nothing at all? Should I go for full time or part time one? And many more questions. I was ready to pay for the service. In return I would get call from XYZ company for abc post. I was not not sure if I was interested in any of those companies or positions. I think many other people might have faced the same situation.
I was checking with my friends and juniors about what they do, what they want to do, and what is their plan after 5-10 years and are they happy with their job, what is their plan to achieve them. I might not have recorded them all and have taken incorrect samples. So the result might be unscientific, but most answers are like this. I am doing dev/testing/support. I want to be a manager/technical after 5 years. I am satisfied/unsatisfied/somehow satisfied with my current job. I don't know how to achieve my goal.
In India there are lots of people who are not sure about their career. They are not sure about what they like, what makes them happy, what they need to do to achieve it. If they say they want a change, most probable they will get similar job profile. So there is a huge scope for career consultants (not recruiters) in India.
Why does India lack career consultants? I can think of 3 reasons.
1) Expertise required for career coach: It may be a tough job. It is easier to search in a job portal for couple of key word and call couple of guys for an interview than understanding a human being.
2)Less Revenue: When a recruiter helps recruiting a candidate for a company, she gets x percentage of the annual gross salary of the candidate. How much a career consultant get?
3) A new field of expertise: Job search is new, but coaching is new concept. As India is adopting from west, so India may get career coaches in future.
In a nutshell India does not have effective career coaching. It has a huge potential for career coaches. Currently India does not have coaches because of the revenue model but will expand.
Monday, 24 August 2009
Value of Life?
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.
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.
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