Psychology of 'congratulatory' spamming

At my school SJMSOM,IITB, its not uncommon to hear someone or else cracking something or other everyday. The first triggering mail intimating the good news is a really pleasant one, but more often than not it forebodes coming of a tsunami of 'reply to all' (RepTA) mails congratulating the feat. The problem is that 'reply to all' being most benign of all the buttons available on a UI(user interface) , conveniently places all the available addresses within the reach of the mail and sets the target on many an innocent souls. For example some informed soul mail the congratulatory mail announcing the achievement to all the people in the class/school mailing list, which has the ability to torpedo 54 to 120 mailboxes at a single click on a button. The address field of Sender 1 reads:
To:
CC:
The first guy to spot the mail does yet another RepTA to personally congratulate the acheiver and manages to do the following:
To:;
CC:
The domino effect continues till people get fed up of the whole RepTA sequence and wait for something more interesting to come their mailbox's way.
What I didnot understand was what drove people to click the dreaded RepTA button. If people were genuinely interested in extending their wishes to the Mr. Achiever , they could have dropped the person a personal mail. Why spam numerous mail boxes with his wishes for the guy in question? Is it because people want to be in action? Or iz it becaaaaz they want to show the world that they indeed become happy at others' achievements and that they are one from the 'social' breed?
I decided to test it and eventually managed to test the junta on two occassion. Both of the times after quite some spamming I moved the discussion to the bulletin board ,which is meant for sharing ideas,news etc. among SOM(school of management) guys. And on both occassion there was hardly any action on the threads. Suddenly people who were hell bent on using the innocuous RepTA button somehow didnot feel the compulsion to get to the thread congratulating the Achiever. It was not that it required considerably more effort to visit the thread and register their sentiments, for I had provided the link in the mail and it was a matter of clicking the link and posting. Also it had the obvious advantage of not spamming the mailboxes. This made me think and think hard.
I am not passing any judgement here for my test were done only twice and people did respond to the threads. It might be that all enthu junta would have already spammed and so no point in visiting the thread and posting. My argument might be absolutely incorrect. I am absolutely aware of these possibilities.I am just stating things here.
So what can be done to prevent people from RepTa syndrome. I have a few suggestions:
1. The moment someone clicks on RepTA, the email client should send an electrical pulse to the user's bum so that it hurt everytime someone tries to RepTA. This would lead to sensible usage only.
2. All the innocent victim should reply personally to the first guy who does a RepTA. So if the RepTA leads to invasion of 54 mailboxes then the perpetrator should have 54 mails in his mailbox the next moment. Give him the the taste of his own medicine,54 times .
3. Simple yaar disable the RepTA button. Make the person type down the contacts in the To box everytime, this will use to the judicious use of key strokes and mouse clicks :).

Any more whacky ideas??? Post in the comments...

Back to B.Tech days

Often it takes a kick in the ass to shake someone up. What if it is kicks,50 odd, literally. I entered the grihasta asharama and bid adieu to the formiddable and probably the most exciting quarter of my life. In the process quite a few chappals, feet and palms registered their mighty presence on my butt. The atmosphere was similar to that of B.Tech days probably better. And everyone, I am sure, enjoyed making scapegoats out of the latecomers to the party as they too bore the wrath / frustation / release after a hectic summer placement schedule. Its good to see people joining you in the celebration and makes your life seem meaningful and worth living. At the same time I again questioned myself as I do on my birthday.Why should I celebrate my birthday? Whats so great about it? What have I done for the world that is today rejoicing on my birthday? 25 yrs and I have been able to do just enough to fill up just one side of A4 sized paper.
The questions were all the more pinching as I had just returned from a discussion about entrepreneurship conducted by Subroto Bagchi, COO Mindtree. The videos of interviews of V.G. Siddhartha, Founder Cafe Coffee Day and Capt. Gopinath, Founder Air Deccan were still echoing in my head. They made revolutions they made seem so simple to achieve. Inspiring as they were most striking feature was the passion they had for their mission and their unassuming demeanour. As I walked out of the cozy audi at the Welingkar's my heart was still scanning for the omnipresent beautiful damsels in the campus, the mind was still with the videos and the personalities that I had just witnessed so closely.
Welingker is indeed a place to be. With beautiful cyber squatters in the literal sense (there were people with laptops squatting on the floor busy orkutting and checking mails) all round it seems all to irrestible to spend last two academic years of one's life. I am sure it proves a great release for all the frustated souls who come to do MBA. Also its not difficult keep yourself motivated to attend all the no longer tasteess lectures.

Two faces of India

"India shining" a deserving to fail campaign, which eventually did fail, had surprised me with its failure. I always thought how could a country growing at 8% annualy, attracting second largest amount of FDI, haven for jobs, IT destination of the world, growing manufacturing hub, 3rd largest economy in PPP terms and thousand other such distinctions, not shine. I thought that it was strange that people didnot buy it.
Then one day i happened to be walking towards my office, Infosys Technologies, Bangalore, with usual nonchalence and realised something which had never occurred to me.
Check out the backdrop of majestic infosys buildings against the slums around it. One is the
showpiece of indian entrepreneurship, worldclass facility and indian growth and development and the other negates it right in front of it. How can we live with a dual face is what has always amazed me. The growth indeed is exclusive.
Indian population is like a pyramid with huge base and less height. The people at the top are few but as we move down the portion of population deprived of the height increases rapidly. In my mind there are lot of reasons for this.
First and foremost is IT disillusionment. IT earns forex and is a huge margin business. IT is top end industry with lot of glam factor and is considered hi-tech and it is easy to justify it as the real sign of indian growth since anything related to intellect is easily professed by the high and mighty "supposedly intelligent"of any country in the world. The people involved earn very high salaries and its easy to spot them in posh localities, malls etc. The banks are crazy about them. Credit card issuers consider them as their king. In short everyone's talking about them. This leads to the misconception that everyone is like them. They probably represent not even .1% of the indian population. People often mistake the rise in no. of software engineers as inclusive growth. The 70% of population which thrives on agriculture is left out of this development and still is not accounted for in the scheme of things. In the current five year plan the agriculte growth has been just 1.5% compared to 4.7% in the previous plan. Growth in IT for 2005-2006 has been 28% and has been double digit growth for the last many years. Thus .1% of the population has seen high growth and 70% pretty low growth. Is India growing???
Sensex is devil no. 2. in a world is driven by money. Indian companies are doing well. How long is a question to be answered, but currently they are cynosure of every world investor's eyes. People assume sensex is directly correlated with the state of economy. People assume that growth in sensex reflects that everyone is doing well. The world media gungho about the indian bourses have conviniently ignored the darker and grim face of indian state of affairs.
Therefore its time to reassess the euphoria about Indian story. We need to take care of the regioinal and demographic imbalances in place. Else we will be faced with irreversible social consequences. Naxalites are a case in point. Farmers committing suicides is unfortunate. Soon they may revolt. India is not what is obvious. There is a whole lot of people who constitute India. We need to consider everyone and not the ones who make us feel good about the state of affairs.

A visit to TBI

One of the major factors which I considered while deciding to join IITB SJMSOM was the exposure one gets about entrepreneurial activities. Today it was more than justified. Prof. Banerjee took us to the TBI (Technology Business Incubator at IIT Bombay). And boy were we not impressed.
The first stop was an operational area of Zeus Numerix, a start up dealing with complex computational fluid dynamic problems. It was housed in a dingy room, giving the feel of a typical silicon valley startup. A few computers were scattered here and there on a few benches as people were religiously working at something with lot of fat books placed beside the computer screens. Not a single guy belied the nerdiness in the air there, till i noticed someone happily scrapping at Orkut. Thank God I shared something in common with them.
The director spoke to us. The director was a twenty something lad, dressed in semi formals and looked more like a student than a boss. He impressed us when he said that the company was already making profits. 30 Lacs on a revenue of 1.5 crores. The atmosphere there struck a chord with me as I could sense the excitement in the quiteness of the room. A silent determination and love for one's work was emanating from every corner of the room. People seemed to be proud of what they were doing. What else can you expect from a job. Interestingly the director was the least paid guy there !!
Then we proceeded to the more posh TBI. The infrastructure provided there was excellent. The companies were housed in plush rooms. Space seemed to be a constraint everywhere, as people worked side by side like students in classrooms. No personal space and no cubicles and probably no coffee vending machines too. Everyone meant business and there was no room for usual comforts/air of big companies. But unlike employees of big companies the body language seemed to reflect that theirs is the best work in the world. The spirit touched me, as my entrepreneurial spirit got a huge fillip and I became really restless.
I hope I realise my long cherished dream of doing a startup. Only time will show.

The sole Fan

I seem to be the sole fan of Dr. S. Banerjee in the MBA batch at IITB SJMSOM. If you go through his profile one will be just flabbergasted with his achievements. He seems to be a person of infinite potential. Acheiving so much in a life time is rare and I really admire him for it. He is full of wisdom. Whatever he says is derived from his extensive and supreme experiences. Perhaps its that we are not able to appreciate his talks simply due to lack of maturity and relatively less number of years of experience. I believe he would be a major hit in an executive education class where people are in senior manegerial posts and would be able to make more sense out of it. Perhaps we really are dwarfs in his presence. His practical wisdom is at a pedestal quite beyond our reach.But I am determined to extract whatever juice I can get out of such a maganaminous personality. Due to my limited ability I might not be able to derive much but would try to make the most of being student of such a great gentleman. I intend to forget about marks,forget about tests and just enjoy being in his company for four hours each week.

Banerjee's Barrage

We at IITB SJMSOM are lucky to have him. He goes by the name of Dr. S. Banerjee . The guy is full of wisecracks and wisdom. We are certainly dwarfed by his presence. He has an extreme penchant for proverbs of all size and shapes. I therefore have started collecting them. And the barrage of his one liners would be constantly updated here. So watch this space.

1.Instead of taking 5 Kgs of Broccoli take a 5 mg (medicinal) capsule.(This was when he mentioned about his notes which were condensed form of the reference book which he had recommended).
2.Person who has pure knowledge is like a bullock carrying sugar, who doesnot know how it tastes.(This was to emphasize the point that it counts only when knowledge is applied. Just theory is not good enough).
3.Tiger is important for health of the herd of deers. (The weakest in the herd becomes the tiger's victim. Thus each time someone falls victim to tiger the herd becomes stronger. Thus the big ones in an industry eliminate the weaklings who are not good for the industry).
4.If a cuckoo twitters once its not spring. (Dont remember the context).
5.Financial result is like a toothpaste. Once its out you cant push is behind. So Financial results should always be looked upon in the light of past events.
>>>>>>>Updated>>>>>>>
6.When minds donot meet donot trust the word.(he was talking about why managers should have excellent Public relations).
7.Lots can be done with two threes (3,3). A typical indian will subtract 3-3 and get zero. An american will add 3+3 and get 6. A japanese would get 27 by raising 3 to the power of 3. A smart indian will get 33 by placing 3s next to each other.
>>>>>>>Updated>>>>>>>

Cartoon from -> http://www.ahajokes.com/crt113.html

Back to School

The classes have begun and so has our penury as we try hard to gather ourselves to keep up with the pace of instructor. A 2hr introduced us to balance sheet, another 2 hrs to statistics and yet another two hours verging on 20 yrs took toll on our brains when we were being pushed with lot of very basic terminologies related to IT. Having spent close to 3 years in IT industry that was the last thing I expected. Slides after slides kept on explaining multiuser systems/DOS/Windows/LAN/DBMS...as I looked to duck the very same stuff that I thought I had left behind. No case studies for this course means its going to be a monologue. The lecturer had done an excellent job at making the presentation as he made sure that all the details are mentioned in a presentable way. It was the most meticulous presentation that I had ever seen in my life. Perhaps it is the nature of the course and my assumption that I know all about it that tuned me to Venus in the class.
The scene is quite different in the other classes where there are ample case studies or the teacher is quite happy to give lot of opportunity to the class to speak. A few enthusiastic souls it seems have made it a point to speak out whatever terminologies they have come across before joining the course, relevance of the utterings seem to be irrelevant, others take every opportunity to cross question till the hilt, not willing to let go, lest they lose the opportunity to clarify an issue till the very end (Sometimes I too get dragged into this, working on resisting the temptation). The class is often left praying and hoping for the progress in the lecture. Perhaps its the newfound B-school student status or perhaps purely the zeal to learn as much or perhaps just timepass yaar - when everyone is speaking let me blabber out something too or maybe asking my question might help me out of deep slumber - or perhaps its just the openmindedness and knowlegebility of the profs here that encourages the students to probe deeper and deeper into the subjects, as they feel assured of gaining something out of it. Whatever!! I am enjoying my return to SCHOOL and plan to be one of the perpetrators of all the crimes mentioned above. I hope i become a good criminal and have a fun time.

Whats behind bikini, i meant the story :D

Got this interesting info somewhere on the net. Worth a read.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After 60 years, the string bikini still serves as a platform for innovation by ZDNet's David Berlind -- So, here's a question: 60 years from now (or whenever your favorite operating system was born), will there still be room for innovation on today's computing platforms? Or, will the string bikini -- now 60 years old -- outlive them all. As Reuters reports, Canada-based Solestrom has a new bikini that fetches $190 and no, [...]

Citizens lose yet another right

Welcome to one more shock to the nation by this UPA government, which seems to spare nothing for the citizens of India and moreover makes a mockery of the person at helm who is supposed to the most qualified PM in the world as he makes compromises after compromises with his intellect and integrity to lead 1 billion helpless people who have been exploited by the people they themselves have elected.
The latest missile from cabinet comes in form of the the proposed amendment to the Right to Information Act. The amendment seeks to take beyond the purview of public, something called as file notings. A government file has two parts : papers under consideration (PUC) and file notings. File notings contain the comments, reasons and other details pertaining to the deliberations about PUCs. Therefore this acts as the trail of whole decision making process. Thus one can easily make out details like who agreed/disagreed with the decision, who all were a part of the decision making process, what factors were considered and what were not considered etc. And this laid bare the whole decision making process of government bodies. Transparency is a government official's biggest enemy and so it had to be taken on.
Lots of citizen had benefited by this powerful and empowering act. Citizen groups across the country were promising freedom from bribe and injustice doled out by government bodies by using this act. The ray of hope has met the obstacle. Perhaps this is going to be another step backward similar to the recent retrograde reservation ruckus.
RTI was the supposed to be the most progressive RTI act in the whole world and made India noticed and recognised for this pathbreaking ACT. It had held the Indian head high and promised to make the current equation betwween the government and the citizens better.But this government had proved earlier and can indeed go to any lengths to see its vested interest through.
But as was said about mumbaikars after the recent bombings in Mumbai, the Indian spirit will go on. Perhaps we need to go ahead despite the government. Perhaps India will just remain yet another country in the world. Perhaps we will become more adept by learning to work with the 'system' like many successful Indian entrepreneurs. Or perhaps India will be doomed!!. Best of luck India, tough times ahead.

For more information check out this article.

Michael Jackson Mix

This is by far my most favourite video. If you were wondering why people were crazy for MJ this is the perfect answer for it. The choreography, by MJ himself, is breathtaking. Be patient video might take longer to play with max wait time 5 mins. It plays in infy network so I am sure it will play thru other companies' networks too.

Ronaldinho: Touch of Gold

Check out Ronaldhino in action. The shots to the bar of the goal post are too good.

Ninja's comment about Matrix action funny

Check out what ninja community have to say about action in matrix!! Its outright funny.

CeBIT 2006 - Municator

My search for free softwares led to this serendipity. Check out the video for the demo of this product. The video is 11 minutes long and might take some time to play if your net connection is slow. Nevertheless it is worth the wait.This product is a 146$ Linux computer from China that does all the basic things most people need, like browsing (firefox), emailing (thunderbird), instant messaging (gaim), skype, word processing (chinese open office), audio/video playback (mplayer), e-learning, all through a very user-friendly very basic interface and is software upgradable. It has got 40GB, a 400mhz/800mhz VIA processor, 256mb ram, 4 usb2 ports, VGA-output, ps2 input, tv-output and weigths something like 400 grams. Their slogan is "Say no to Wintel". So again let me reiterate - "There are free lunches :D"

There are free lunches ;)

Its time to head back to school after a 2 yrs in industry. These two years have turned me into nothing less than an epicurean in true sense of the word. Used to free internet/coffee/21 inch monitor/super fast PC/free softwares just a click away/free local and international phone calls/ lots of money at the end of the month/...the list continues. It has to be back of austerity of college days, where each penny spent bites. Being a software engineer in the company of other software engineers have ensure that I dont have the financial security as I truly believed that penny saved is fun sacrificed. As I open my excel sheet titled 'finances' again and again and try to calculate how much money do I have to spend in the coming two years at my b-school the furrows on my forehead deepen. Still I hope to get the loan for laptop a luxury in which I indulged just for the heck of it. That would bring some sort of respectablity to my bank account.

My laptop has the meanest of all softwares. Mean featurewise. MS has made sure that its philanthropy with software is not to compare with philanthrophy of its Chief Software Architecht and his wife. What I get for free is Microsoft Works + Outlook Express and both suck. The moment you try to indulge in something slightly fancy they remind you that its a free ware and one should not be expecting anything out of the bare necessity from it. So much for free software. So I thought can we stay free of MS' bread crumbs??? Thus began my search for free softwares on net. And i have just started using them.
For now I have tried the following softwares:
1. Open Office 2.0.
2. Mozilla thunderBird.
3. Mozilla firefox.
4. Google Earth.
5. AVG antivirus.
6. Webaroo.
7. Google Desktop.
8. Google Picassa.

Well I have been able to live without any licensed softwares for now. I was ecstatic when I was able to create my resume with tables and all fancy word formatting and was able to export it to a pdf using openoffice. Impress, the open office equivalent of powepoint seemed powerpacked to.

For now atleast I think I can live without any costly softwares.

Reviews:
Excellent review of mozilla thunderbird vs. outlook express
http://www.beust.com/weblog/archives/000118.html
http://beust.com/outlook-thunderbird.html

http://www.physorg.com/news2292.html

Google Desktop vs. Windows search
http://www.website101.com/arch/archive158.html

AVG Antivirus reviews:
http://www.tonytoews.com/editorial/avgantivirusreview.htm
http://www.software-antivirus.com/program/avg-antivirus-review.html

The interview!!

Finally got some time to put this here.
___________________________________________________

We entered the GD Room where we were made to sit sequentially in the order of our roll no. We were then handed over the printed sheet which was supposed to be the topic for the GD. The GD was about a catering service company with some workers who were dissatisfied with work. We were provided with two statistics – one pertaining to the level at which the dispute with the worker was solved i.e. at a junior supervisor level or senior manager level etc. and the other one spoke about the kinds of dispute e.g. overtime, payment etc. The GD was the usual Indian parliament with every one with the loud voice getting some airtime. The variety of points discussed was not great. In the midst of the brouhaha I thought I was not being heard and this being my first b-school GD experience in my whole life (I did not take any GD/PI coaching either). This made me be more aggressive while making my points. Finally the GD ended and I felt it was too soon till I realized that it was already 20 mins. We ventured out of the room to wait for our interview turn. Outside I was told by the fellow candidates that I got the maximum airtime, was shouting at the top of my voice and was not letting others speak. Man and I had thought I was the one who was least noticed.
Outside the interview room I got hold of a student and started chatofying him about everything related to the college. The placements, the teachers, the students, the facility etc. Meanwhile students called before me were coming back after a tidy grill. I got to know that lots of questions were asked about statistics and technical subjects. I had managed to go through some part of statistics but was wondering if I would be able to answer academic technical questions after 2.5 yrs of passing out of my college and add to that the pseudo technical work at my Indian IT company. Anyways I remembered my friend ‘Pocha’s’ principle of jhoota self confidence (false self confidence). Before each horrifying examination he used to convince himself that he is fully prepared to top the exam. And this sense of self confidence had made him crack a lot of exams. I too decided to rely on it this time.
I was soon called and I walked into the room like a king smiling with my certificate file in my hands. I greeted the panelists and flashed a colgate smile. They returned the greetings and asked me for my certificates and gestured me to sit down. I had gathered outside that the three profs in the panel say M1, F1, F2 (M for male and F for female) taught international business, finance and technology management respectively. I sat there like William’s son with apple of self esteem on my head and these three guys kept on shooting arrows at it one by one.
M1 – Showed me a diagram which he had prepared before my entering the room. Asked me which line best represents the points.
Moi – None.(Lucky me I had just gone through correlation and variance the night before. It cant get better than this. But I managed to keep the “on the spot thinking” look with lots of ummmmms and ‘I think’ before answering. This continued through out till the statistics was there on the table)
M1 – Why?
Moi – Not all points will be represented by any of the lines. Some of the points will be far away. Again after another ‘on the spot thinking’ look I said “I think you are asking about correlation and regression. Since the points are randomly distributed I think that no line is correlated with the points.” I made sure that I gave the impression that I am recollecting all this from the subjects I read in the college.
M1 – How would you find the equation of the line which best represents a given set of points?
Moi – (hmmm curve fitting) Another pondering look and then slowly as if just formulated the idea and making sure that I don’t use any technical words I slowly proceeded saying that we can probably find the distance of the points from the curve and add them up. M1 now brings a smile to his now straight face. I am relieved
F2 – What is SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)
Moi – How I wished I had read software engg well in the college!! Aneways took out a paper and wrote what ever seemed logical to me. I later confirmed outside that I was 95% correct in whatever I had written.
F3 – What is Nagpur famous for?(I had done my engg from Nagpur Univ.)
Moi – Oranges
F3 – And?
Moi – Zero Mile(the official centre of India)
F3 – A sideways Shake of head and then “And?”
Moi – Lot of coal mines and spices grown in vidharba.
F3 – Not satisfied yet “And?”
Moi – Told about cricket stadium, RSS founded there etc. etc. but none satisfied her
F3 – Is it famous for something related to railways?
Moi – I capitulated and confessed “I don’t know mam”. She now seemed to be happy.
F3 – You stay in Bangalore. What states will you pass from if you go from Chennai to Kolkata in train?
Moi – Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
F3 – Ok now tell me the breadth of India?
Moi – Flabbergasted , the apple of self esteem had finally been hit with such a ridiculous question. And I could see them jeering at me like Mr Murdstone at David Copperfield.
F3 – Ok give me a range.
Moi – Smiling happily 0 – 10000 Km. Laugher all around felt a bit relaxed now.
I took one min to see if I can logically derive it and the started thinking aloud – Distance from Kolkata to Bombay is 1600 Km as the crow flies. So I guess the breadth of India should be 1600 x 2 i.e. 3200 KM.
F3 – Again a negative nod but said – “ I like the way you derived it.”
Moi – Finally I think I m getting there.
M1 – What’s the difference between GMT and IST.
Moi – 5:30 hrs.
F2 – What is the longitude at which IST is calculated?
Moi – Calculated 4 mins per longitude so 330 mins / 4 = 82.5 degrees. I responded 82.5 East.
F2 – Smile on her face too. Asked how did you calculate?
Moi – Explained.
M1 – What do you think about Microsoft way of doing things and Linux way? With respect to the fact that Microsoft way a limited no. of people review the code in linux the whole world is a development thing.
Moi – protested – MS vs. Linux is a whole lot of debate.
M1 – Ok tell me then whether less no. of people reviewing is better or more no. of people reviewing the code is better.
Moi – Gas this time. Told them that there is no directly proportional relation between no. of people reviewing code and the quality of the code because as the no. of people increased the increase in quality will stagnate(I made sure I dint give them a chance by using diminishing marginal utility). But surely 5 people reviewing is better than 2 people reviewing.
F2 – What is knowledge management?
Moi – Gas lot of gas.
F3 – How does my company implement knowledge management?
Moi – Gas again and cooked up some false example to show them the usefulness of knowledge management. Told about the international awards won by my company for its knowledge management practices.
F3 – What is difference between technology and engineering?
Moi – Well engineering uses technology to create something useful for the society. Threw in an example – MPEG is a technology and engineering guys realize it into a player, say, which can be used by the people to enjoy music.

Panelists – Thanks and send the next guy in.
Finally came out alive. With lot of arrows passing right beside my apple of self esteem but finally it was intact though a bit scratched.
Met my school senior who was a student there and got a chance to look at the hostel. The hostel were single seater with 1 Gbps LAN (one of the fastest in India) and 24 hrs broadband connectivity. The furniture was rubberwood and looked good though the rooms were smaller for my liking.
Got back to Gaurav’s room and then left for my flight to Bengalooru.

Anti Reservation Rally in Bangalore on 28th May 2006

At the starting point in Chick Lalbagh near Majestic bus stand.



Even kids were a part of it.


Over 5000 people of all age groups and professions were a part of this rally.



There was a helluva security arrangement. Water Tankers. Huge number of riot policemen. But the thing went on very smootly without any untoward incident.




Lots and lots of placards reflecting public opinion.



People had lot to express in their own way.



Lots of doctors from the famous Manipal Hospital were there in the protest rally.Guys with white overcoats are all practicing doctors or medical students.



End Point.



Lots of OBCs joined the protest against reservation. Here is one of them speaking his thots out against the reservation.

Your Web Portfolio

I always had this problem of going to every site that interests me and finding out what's the latest on them. Recently I discovered RSS/Atom feed. Though this looks terribly techie the techiness of the whole affair ends at the name only. Using it is a moron's job.
For background on RSS read this and for gyaan on Atom read this.
For the lazy souls here RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Syndication means 'Selling (an article or cartoon) for publication in many magazines or newspapers at the same time'. This might give you an idea as to what it is.
Most websites feature RSS/Atom feeds, which means if you have an RSS/Atom reader you can read the most recent updates on the websites automatically and you dont have to visit them to check out whats new. For example I use google reader to organise my favorite websites. To know more about google reader read the google reader FAQs.You can add subscriptions in the following ways:
1. Site directed - For example if you want to add Wired Magazine's RSS subscription to your google reader, simply go to the site and click on the RSS link at the top of the page (Note most of the sites have a link reading RSS/XML which takes you to the RSS feed xml page). There you would find a "Subscribe Now!" space where you would find a list of readers. Choose "Add to Google" and then you would be asked whether you want to add to Google homepage or Google reader. I prefer google reader. You would now be taken to google reader page ( you might have to sign in to google reader service using your gmail username/password). And you can see the latest headline from wired magazine in your reader. Now just open your reader any time of the day to see whats the latest story on the wired mag.
2.Dino Age way - This is the good old mechanical way. Lets try and add the Hindu's editorial page in our reader. Click on RSS at Hindu's website to see the list of sections which can be fed. Copy the link saying Opinion. Now go to your google reader and click "Edit Subscriptions". Click on the link "Add Feed" and then paste the xml link in the textbox reading "Feed URL" and click 'Preview'. And you are done.
3.OPML way - Now this is not for the faint hearted. I have not been able to use this successfully but if someone does, its very very useful feature. OPML stands for Outline Processor Markup Language. The curious ones or the ones with technical appetite would like to check out the OPML home page and the wikipedia entry for OPML . The idea is simple. OPML is a common XML based format which helps you in storing and exchanging outline structured data in a platform independent way. An analogy can be HTML which can be understood by html readers in any platform mobile,windows,unix etc. etc. What one needs to do is sequence the xml links to the RSS feeds in an OPML format and feed the OPML file to the google reader. The google reader will automatically subscribe to all the links. Its pretty simple to do as is mentioned here, but somehow the google reader is not able to import from my OPML file.More on this when I get going with it.
Another interesting thing is one can share one's subscriptions with freinds using the share feature of google reader.
Check out and condense you web world. Happy Syndicating!!!
PS - Please post links, comments etc. about anything related.
Thanks.

Installing R Connect on LG Reliance Phones

Setting up R Connect is pretty simple for all the LG phones. I have tried setting it up for LG LSP 350 R, LG LSI 110 both of which are Fixed Wireless Phones and also RD 5130 which is a CDMA mobile. Dont expect the Reliance call centre guys to help you out as they are worthless and pass on lots of wrong information.Looks like they are not trained for handling R Connect problems.
The process is very simple and goes as follows:
1.Get the data cable for your phone. For most of the models you have to buy the data cable separately. The showroom price is 1200 bucks, but u can easily get it from ebay at a fraction of the cost. I recently bought the data cable for LG LSI 110 for Rs. 150 only whereas the showroom price was around Rs.1200. Also note that data cables of two models may or may not be compatible. For example data cable of LG LSP 350 R and RD 5130 models are absolutely compatible but that of LG LSI 110 is different. Note the CD accompanying datacable is not useful for Rconnect try to keep it away from ur system :).
2.Download the RConnect software corresponding to your phone from here. Note you must directly install this software and not the one on the CD accompanying the data cable.
3.Install the R Connect software downloaded from the above site. Make sure you have not plugged in the USB cable yet into your CPU. Doing so might lead to errors and problems.
4.After installing some files and drivers , the installation wizard explicitly asks you to plug in the USB end of the data cable to the PC. Only now should you connect USB end of the datacable to the PC.Make sure that before connecting hte USB end to the PC the other end is connected to your phone.
5.As soon as you plug in the USB end into the PC the new hardware wizard pops out and asks you to detect.You should select "Run this time only" option and click on next. It will ask you to install recommended driver and you must faithfully click on finish button. This happens three or four times before you can finish the installation of R Connect.
6.After the installation is completed, the installation wizard asks you to restart the PC. Restart and you are ready.
7.After restarting click on the R Connect icon and enter the user name and password both of which are usually the phone number.
The browsing speed as per my experience is ok and RConnect is recommeded only for antique applications like email and content browsing. For serious downloaders some broadband connection will help better.
If I missed some points or if you want to add something pls add in the comments. I will update this post if comments are compelling.
Hope this helps. Bye for now.

Updated Link for r-connect phone drivers -> click here

Innovative Job Ads

Today's front page of TOI Bangalore edition yelled "Grab IT:1 lakh jobs on offer for u". The article mentioned what I had noticed so many times while travelling on Hosur Road - HTMT hiring advertisement. On display outside its swank office is a vertical banner reaching out to the onlookers saying "WE ARE HIRING". This according to HTMT has yielded rich dividends for them. The hiring spree and the competition for good human resources was evident I turned to the Ascent section which holds all kinds of fancy job advertisements. A few advertisements caught my eyes.



One was by amdocs which said "The easiest way to earn frequent flier" referring to the onsite (abroad) opportunities present with the company. Sure to catch an eye or two given the increased offshoring focus by local IT companies which have drastically reduced onsite opportunities for software engineers in last couple of years.



Other interesting one was that of Tech Mahindra. The catch line was "Come home to the opportunity you looked all over". Tech Mahindra guys have surely identified the longing of north Indian softies for companies close to their houses as a sure bet for retaining and attracting talent. It therefore emphasises the rapid expansion plans at its Kolkata,Noida and Bangalore. Note that Kolkata and Noida centers are east and north cities and there lies the USP of MBT for the homesick North Indian softie. Also quite dramatic is the picture which apparently potrays a softies sentimental homecoming to old parents verymuch in need of their son's support. Emotional blackmailing huh!!!

Pre interview moments

I followed Gaurav towards his room, making sure I had a good look at the hostel as I passed by those strange looking closed doors which I had expected to emanate some kind of radiance . To my dismay there was no such emanation and it looked like the awe for IIT was slowly wearing off. I had met lots and lots of IITians after I passed out of my college and the more IITians I met the more the awe rubbed off. I had realised by now that IITians are very human, just like us and the reason why they are such a hit every where is because of their self-confidence and positive attitude. Being in top 3000 out of 3,00,000 IIT aspirants would fill one up with all these rare qualities. Intelligence wise i had realised that apart from top 10% iitians rest are pretty good and just most of other bright people. But the above mentioned qualities is what made them invincible where ever they went. And i had come across many exceptions to this rule. Nevertheless sans the exceptions they are genuine best breeds.
The alleys of the hostel were dark and silent quite unlike my UG hostel which was always teeming with guys discussing whole gamut of issues from the that day's menu at girls hostel to the domestic problems in the principal's house to why WTO is sure to bring about demise of India to why Pentium is good for multimedia as compared to 486 processors. This surely smelt like a pure PG(post graduation) hostel where the occupants have long been tortured by the academics and have come to believe that academics are insurmountable and its better to give them enough importance by going for a PG. I entered gaurav's room after passing by a maze of rooms and corridors. His room was a typical students room. Lots of thick books (surprisingly all seemed frequently used as there was no dust on anyone of them) an assembled computer with speakers, a cot, clothes hanging on the wall and a mirror which believed in divide and conquer theory as it would show you at max only one quarter of ur face so that you provide enough attention in grooming that quarter.
It did not take me long to realise that gaurav kumar had transformed into an internet addict and a computer geek as he kept on searching web of all kinds of information while we chatted away. His nonchalance about what others in the world were doing had always amazed me and now with added dose of typical IIT confidence and +ve attitude it made a deadly combination. As we discussed our lives i noticed a poster on one of his walls. It said - "Thirty years from now, it won’t matter what shoes you wore, how your hair looked, or what jeans you bought. What will matter is what you learned and how you used it". This immediately catapulted me into deep thought as I put my life in context. My resolve to do a post grad had taken a beating after two years of consecutive efforts at belling the CAT. The last time I had missed it by a whisker. This time by a mile. But nevertheless i decided that i got to make it to IITB by hook or by crook, whether to join or not will be decided later. Gaurav noticed me and he understood what was running in my mind. He again in his typical nonchalant way assured me that i would make it. He had given up a plum job after graduation and had settled for a rigorous 1 year preparation at Delhi, where he stayed away from his family in a single room, studying day in and day out hoping to make it to IIT, while his batch mates kept on opting for one of the abundant IT jobs and got used to easy going life. He kept his concentration steadfast on his aim and he made it finally. Quite maverick like i would say.
Well he had justified every bit of his decision and was reaping benefits now. After some more chit chat which lasted till about 3 a.m. we slept. I got up @ 7 a.m. and as usual indulged in some day dreaming as I moved about in the corridors getting a good view of the hostel and the surroundings. Had a sojourn at the toilet which looked to be too clean for college guys or may be its just that PG guys are all to expended to ruffle any feathers anywhere. Noticed a washing machine in the bathroom and immediately my age old wish came back to life. During my UG days we had quite a celebration for Saraswati Puja and Holi. These were the days when there was a mass production of bhaang at the hostel mess. It had always occurred to me ,everytime I saw the bhaang being prepared, that one of the innovative uses of the washing machine could be preparation of bhaang/lassi in large quantities. It would serve as the best stirrer available and would take hardly 5 minutes to prepare. I thought that if I happen to be here again I would definitely try to experiment with bhaang production idea. After a few more day dreams I realised its already 8.00 a.m. and I need to get ready fast to reach the rendezvous point for all the aspirants to be interviewed that day. Again an image conjured up in my mind. This time that of a swayamvar. I immediately related my state to that of Ramji and Co. when they were out to prove to Sitaji that they are the best guys in business. Today I had to prove to the panel that I am the best candidate from them. And just like in good all swayamvar days ,I will be asked to show what I am good at and why I should be selected.
I hurried back to Gaurav's room. He was still asleep. I took out my bathing apparatus* and headed towards bathroom all the time feeling like a new software which has been delivered by some Indian IT company and which will undergo rigorous testing to see if it matches the quality and functional requirements expected by the clients. I was just hoping that the testing is done with due care .Lots of horrifying interviews narrated on Pagalguy came to my mind and i even considered sticking up a note on my file saying 'Fragile candidate - handle with care'.
I was all dressed up now in the new shirt and shoes that I had purchased the day before. I prayed that the IITB panelists had a strong belief in "All that glitters is gold". I was late by 15 min when I reached the auditorium. "Good start!" i said to myself. Luckily nothing much had happened till then and the presentation by the IITB students was about to start. I looked around at all the softwares lying around in the room, hoping to meet the requirements of IITB. All of them were impeccably dressed and looking smart. I cursed all those people who had contributed to the huge population of India which had made getting into a B-School so tough. Top in my cursing list was Mr. Dhritarashtra who centuries back was able to produce 100 sons and he pulled out the feat even after being blind. Just imagine if he had normal eyesight I m sure he would have done better and the combinatorial explosion of the future generations of his sons would have been responsible for at least some 10 million kauravas in present india.
The present students started with the presentation and with it self-glorification. I made a few mental notes so that I could blurt out some flattering reasons to join IITB for MBA. In between I managed to get a view of a pretty dame sitting in the last row at the other corner. I hoped she makes it to IITB with me and lend some buoyancy to the NSP (Nayan sukh prapti) index of our class. Later after the presentation was over, to my dismay I came to realise that she was married thanks to her sindoor. Thanks to all those guys who gave this helluva indicator of marital status. The giveaway almost always helps to streamline your potential choices and efforts. I realised that having her in the class would be like the BMW cars in the showroom close to my house, the cars can be seen but not within my reach and looking at it continuously would do me no good. as I conveniently shifted my loyalty to the next best looking girl in the room, though unfortunately the opportunity cost for the change in patronage was very high for my liking.
Anyways we were asked for some documents etc. for verification. I decided to avoid talking to guys around as all the conversations around was about the past IITB interviews and about how they are fond of grilling u technically. 2 yrs of work @ infosys had already killed my technical appetite and had made sure that I was at best mediocre at technical stuff. Though I was pretty confident about the work I was doing I hoped they didnot dig the mental archives of course study at college. I had forgotten most of them. Mean while I tried to relax by catching a view of the married dame and started analysing her with the keen eye of Sherlock Holmes. Red and white bangles showed she was newly married. Shit I was late by a month or two!!. The white bengali bangles gave away her bengali origin. She was in typical business formals and was not flashing her latest mobile or anything which can be remotely classified as geeky gadget, so I thought she must be in some industry other than IT. She would be an engineer or a science post graduate as these were the eligibility requirements for taking the JMET entrance for admissions into IITB...before I could find some more clues my registration no. was announced and I was supposed to join the queue of 10 people which would be driven out for GD. This time I felt like a member of a herd in a cattle fair, to be presented before prospective buyers who would check if we are a good bet for them. The difference is if we get selected it is we who pay for the selection not them. That’s the irony :(.

*This is one of the things i picked up at good ol' hostel days when one sage by the name of Deepak Tathod had referred the razor as shaving appratus during one of the ragging sessions. What followed is history.

Reservations - My thots

This one seems to top any "Worst political decisions ever made" list. Our education minister, a very old hand at politics, has tried to come up with a very innovative idea to give a fillip to his party in the coming legislative elections in the five major states of India. True to the demeanor of a true Indian politician he has conveniently set aside all the concerns about the repercussions of his fancy idea. Well what is more important than a few votes to ensure his party is in power in as many states as possible, when its time to go for next elections at the centre. With left already flexing its muscle ( it has decided to review its support to the central government after the impending state elections) its all too prudent to demonstrate the strength of congress by winning assembly elections.
The Supreme Court decision has limited the reservation percentage in the educational institutions to <= 50%. The government with full respect to the decision plans to implement 49.5 % reservation in the government aided institutions. The plans are on the drawing board to introduce around 27.5% reservations in the premier schools in India. To follow are the reservations for the OBCs and SC/ST etc. etc. in the private companies also. For reasons beyond my comprehension the two premier indian companies - Infosys and TCS - have expressed support for the idea.
It is clear that congress still suffers from the quota raj of the past. India now is a changed country. Repercussions are difficult to gauge. It might be anything we have not thought about yet. Medha Patkar's non violent fast has not ruffled any feathers of the government. Looks like non violence is out of consideration. If the reactions to reservation controversy turns violent God save us. Students in France have taken to streets. May be it’s our turn now.
The government has dispatched orders to state to frame laws for reservation in state educational institutions, in the light of 104th amendment which allows state governments to frame laws to ensure upliftment of socially/educationally backward classes. Basically no avenue is being left for the meritorious students who do not belong to the lower castes.
Various predictions are being made, a few of which might be true. A strong social divide between upper caste and lower caste people which might become bloodier than what it is today. Bihar is the hotbed of this kind of rivalry. May be now it will assume national proportions. A Few say the quality of students coming out of IITs and IIMs will take a beating and so would the reputations of these colleges. The list of possibilities is long.
My opinion about this issue is somewhat different. Reservations is the worst harm that a government can inflict on the backward classes. Firstly the benefits of reservations would be lapped up by the kith and kin of already well off bureaucrats, government officials etc. while the more deserving ones would be deprived of it. Secondly it would be a mad rat race to the top for the students of upper castes who would have to work tremendously hard to get admits into the renowned institutions. These intense competitions would definitely make them smarter and better individuals as compared to the people who would put in moderate efforts secure in the knowledge of the ample seats reserved for them by some god father at the Centre. Thus the students of upper castes would continue to outshine everyone else every where while the guys into the institute because of quotas would have to settle for lesser. IITs already have a one year foundation course for students who have come in through quotas. Thus the usual engg course of 4 yrs stretches to 5 yrs. This shows the usual lack of competence in the quota students. Thus there would be a huge divide between the accomplishments of non quota guys and the quota guys. This would lead to further frictions between the two categories.
The reservation of jobs in private sectors might also be a boon in disguise for the people of upper castes. While the lesser accomplished quota guys would swarm these plum easily available jobs, the non quota guys will have to slog to get them and therefore would be able to make it to the top more easily than the non quota guys. Therefore it is easy to see that social fabric would be infested with casteist feelings all around. The majority of non quota guys might also opt for setting up their own ventures over teeming for a job. The entreprenual fillip that the upper caste community will get would transform the face of Indian society. The power mongers would be the business class i.e. the upper caste people while the quota guys would continue to suffer bliss in their easily acquired jobs. Thus while the upper castes would better their competency and position in the society the lower castes would continue to be at the lower end of the spectrum. The service mentality would crush the budding entrepreneurs in the lower caste society as they would continue to pick up jobs with ease. All hopes of upliftment to become equals to the upper castes would be erased.
The upper castes would have to look beyond India for survival and education. They would go on conquering the world while lower caste guys would be enjoying the bliss of Indian jobs, ignorant of opportunities beyond it. This had already happenned in form of brain drain during the closed economy era.And India suffered hugely because of that.
The upper castes are bound to feel disappointed at this hour but more so should be the Indian society which would lose lots of engineers to foreign firms and bright students to foreign university who would continue to believe that merit is the best leveler.
The reservations are therefore the sure recipe for the end of hope of upliftment of the backward classes. Though it might be a sure shot way towards glory for the upper caste people.

According to me solution to whole hearted upliftment of the society can be tackled in two ways:

1. Get the castes out of the way. Give the reservations to the economically backward classes. Now this again is dangerous. It would be very difficult to find out the income of non salaried people. This might also act as an incentive for tax evasion as people would show income lesser than actual to garner this benefit.
2. Give reservation to only one generation. For example if X and Y are siblings they can avail reservation only if no one in their ancestral hierarchy has availed reservation. This may be made flexible by segmenting reservation into many levels like reservation at primary school level, secondary school level, +2 level, graduation leven, post graduation level and job level. Now lets take an example to see how it might work . Suppose A is grand father B is father and X and Y are sons. A took advantage of reservation at primary level. B can therefore take advantage of reservation at any level apart from primary school level. Suppose he opted for reservation at +2 level. Now his sons X and Y can opt for any reservation except at the level of primary school level (availed by A) and +2 level (availed by B). This would ensure that the people make best use of the opportunities available to them and that next time the reservation is availed by other people in the backward classes who have not availed it. Else generally these reservations benefits only a closed loop of people who continue to enjoy these reservations while the more backward are never able to use them.

Hope someone is sane enough to do the right things.

Bengalooru to Mumbai

I went to the Jet airways counter, and with a confused look I blabbered out '1 cabin luggage' as I put my hand bag on the counter. The lady cringed, made faces and smiled mockingly, all at the same time as she said 'May I have your ticket please'. I knew I was new at this. Last time I had flown was 2 yrs back, and that time I was really tensed to register the flight check-in procedure into my mental hard disk. I handed my ticket to her. She asked ' Which seat sir? Window or aisle?' almost with a certainty that I would choose window, as she apparently didn’t wait for my answer and continued keying in. Then she handed over the ticket. Phew! Got my boarding pass.
Still confused about the next move I need to make towards taking my flight to Mumbai, I walked into what has become a daily feature of my life - the dreaded queue. As it is queues have always made me wonder about FIFO mechanism adopted by man centuries ago, mostly when there is no interesting attraction standing at a noticeable point in the queue. Without much hope I quickly scanned the winding 'S' queue for security check in. Lucky me!! I noticed two 'noticeable' dames at very noticeable point with quite a inconspicuous bit of raiment. Finally things had started looking up. I quickly calculated that given the speed of the movement of the queue, I would be facing them when I will be in the middle leg of the 'S' and they in the final leg. Well my existence as a part of the queue ended in the 'nothingth of a second' (yeah I m reading hitchhiker guide to the galaxy at present) and after lot of visual inspection, I had come to the conclusion that the dames were quite charming and I longed to be lucky in having a seat next to them. I made a silent prayer and I moved on. I suddenly was shaken out of the day dream by the CISF security guard at the other end of the baggage scanner. He rebuked, 'Where is the baggage tag?’ I got confused again. I knew I was missing some part of the check-in ritual. I shrugged and said 'I am sorry I was not aware one needs to have it?’ The security guard made a u-r-the-topmost-idiot-in-the-world expression and started the discourse -
'Can your luggage get across without the tag?’
I shrugged again and said 'Sorry I am not aware!"
'Can you fly without a ticket?’
I took this up as providence fixed warm up for the stress interview I might face at IITB. I said all-knowingly "No."
He finally gave me the gyan "Just as you cannot fly without ticket, your baggage cannot fly without the tag.”. He would have surely added 'you a**hole' but for the public nature of the place. He was able to get his mind across with his terrific body language. I thought he would make a good manager with such good body language and at the same time mentally bestowed him with the worst profanities in my vocabulary. He finally put in the tagged, gave me one more disgusting look and gestured to move on. I moved forward languorously once again a part of yet another FIFO line, all the while trying to cheer myself up with the images of those two dames who boarded the plane with me. In spite of all my prayers, God decided to let this disbeliever pay the price by being the lone guy sitting in the row with no company whatsoever.
I consoled myself by realising that I need to quickly revise a few printouts for the interview. I quickly skimmed through them while I had my dinner.,mugged up whatever stats I cud find and the plane was about to land. I looked outside the window and was amazed at the sight. We were hovering over Mumbai. The whole city was lit up and it looked like lots of diamond studeed gold ornaments have been strewn over the earth. It was one of the most breathtaking scenes I had ever seen in my life. For some five minutes I lost all the tensions and worries about the next day, as I made sure my memory recorded every second of this view, for later recall. In case of space crunch in my mental 'soft disk' I was even ready to overwrite the recordings of the dames I had observed just a few minutes back and also of the sexy airhostess whose every frame of movement had been recorded with precision for later use ;). So much was I enthralled by it all.
Suddenly the announcement system came alive and we were asked to tie up the seat belts yet again, this was the fourth time in this flight. We were about to touch down. The plane came to a stop and I got ready to alight. Darn one more FIFO. Why is there no system for random movement of humans? Was no one researching into how to get out of this sequential mindset? I quickly recalled the pos and cons of sequential and random file processing systems, just in case it was asked in the interview. These IITB guys are infamous for embarassing you with all basic technical questions even in an MBA interview and I was not taking any chances. As I mumbled a few profanities again, this time directed towards those unknown panel of interviewers who would be taking my interview the next day, I observed that the flight stewards were saying 'Goodbye sir!' to only those people whom they deemed fit for their salutations. I decided to extract every bit of service for the Rs.2400 I had paid for the flight. As I approached the exit I stared hard at the steward, who capitulated by saying 'Goodbye sir!’ Huh! I triumphed.
I was out and boarded the bus to the terminal. Thankfully didn’t have to join yet another FIFO queue as I moved outside the airport. I hired an auto for IITB hostel no. 1.The auto guy turned out to be not much different from his brethren in Bangalore, who have got themselves a very negative publicity for the vile demeanors they usually adopt to extract the last possible penny from your wallet - 'Sir thoda samajh ke extra de dena - 2 hours se line mein khada hoon?'. I made perfect use of the match between my countenance and my destination and replied - ' Yaar student hoon? Kamata nahin hoon. Nahin to de deta.' I was satisfied with my histrionics as he seemed convinced, he had no answer for this and he continued driving.
I leaned back and looked out of the auto. The cool breeze was soothing and I again got lost in my thoughts while admiring the road, speed of the auto and cool attitude of people traveling around me (you should have stayed in Bangalore after 2003 to understand why I was so please by all this). After some time I entered IITB and reached hostel no.1 which looked like a government hospital. I had called Gaurav on the way and he was waiting at the entrance. He received me and auto wallah proving true to my earlier observation asked for 1.5 times the fare. Oh again he was trying to be a typical bangalorean auto driver. I had lost hope and paid him Rs. 100 , Rs. 93 was the due amount. Gaurav argued that it’s not past 12a.m. for the 1.5 times rule and that he must not try to loot money from the students. He went on to say that we have to save zealously to pay our fees. Finally he gave up and mumbled a few words and returned Rs. 7. I quickly revised my impression about Bombay auto walah and added a note in my mind 'PS - They are not so bad after all' .
Gaurav and I exchanged a light hug. We were meeting after 3 years and we shared a great friendship in college. I made an entry in the guest register of Hostel 1 and proceeded to Gaurav's room.

Next - Gaurav and the difference IIT makes .