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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When there is a will there is a way:: Er. Pravat Patra

I am confused about direction east-west-north south at most of the places but not at UCE hostel. The reason is hostels are named as east hostel, west hostel and so on. There is a free land among the hostels. And to east of the land it is east hotel and so on. Engineer Pravat Patra have studied at UCE from 1991-1995 and was staying in west hostel from 1992-1994 (second year and third year).

All the hostels habe their own garden, but not comparable with the new hostel (final year hostel currently ladies hostel) garden. And the land have some unwanted grasses, trees and bushes. One would be able to find snakes and rats in the land, which is in the middle of east,west, north and south hostel. Pravatji decided to make a garden at the central land. He spoke with certain friends. Response was positive from most of his friends. So he started with the gardener who was working for west hostel. He and his friends joined the gardener to cut the bushes, clean the unwanted grasses.It was his routine work from 4 PM to 7 PM. After cleaning they put some grasses and flowers in the central garden.

Maintaing the garden was a really collaborative. East hotel was providing water pipe where as west hostel was providing electricity and gardener. North hostel was providing gardener and trolley. And the garden flourished in a couple of months.

To be contd..

Help to Cyclone affected people of Odisha

Rajkanika has seen worst cyclone, and politicians and government is busy with election. So not much relief has done at Rajkanika, Odisha.


SERVICES RENDERED BY UTKAL BIPANNA SAHAYATA SAMITI IN THE VILLAGES AFFECTED BY DEVASTATING CYCLONE IN RAJKANIKA BLOCK OF KENDRAPARA

The devastating cyclone of 31.03.2009 has caused thousands of people homeless in the Rajkanika Block of Kendrapara District. 16 peoples have been died so far and more than 500 people have been injured. Around 50 nos. of cattle have been injured and died. Thousands of people of 12 villages in 7 Panchayats have been badly affected.

As always, the volunteers of Utkal Bipanna Sahayata Samiti have rushed to the spot immediately to rescue people & give relief to the affected people. More than 150 volunteers with 2 Ambulances, doctors & paramedical staff have been engaged for different services like rescue, relief, medical aid, cleaning of roads, food materials & clothes distribution, cooked food distribution etc.

The volunteers have been rendering their selfless service day & night for the last 2 days in the affected villages Baghapada, Ganja, Jaguleipada, Sarasa, Govindapur, Taila, Seba Basti & other affected villages.

2 nos. of ambulances with paramedical staff have been engaged to give first aid to the injured people & to shift the injured people to the Rajnagar hospital & other local hospitals. Health camps have been organized in the affected places to give medical aid to the injured people.

More than 100 volunteers have been engaged to clean the roads and to help the affected families to build their houses.

Materials distributed by the volunteers of UBSS so far

i) Biscuit- 25000 Pkts.
ii) Baby food- 300 pkts.
iii) Saree- 2 Nos. of saree (for each family) to 670 families
iv) Dhoti- 2 Nos. of Dhoti (for each family) to 670 families
v) Candle
vi) Match Box
vii) Baby food packets (containing biscuit, amul, sagu & sugar)-10000 packets
Apart from above 2 nos. of centres have been opened to give cooked food at the following places

Name of the village Avg. no. of people (everyday)
i) Baghapada 1500
ii) Ganja 1000

In the coming days, more no. of cooked food centres will be opened to give service to the poor affected people which will continue for more than 3 days. Similarly other services like materials distribution, cleaning, health camp etc. will also be organized for more days.