Lokasabha Elections 2009

at 25, i voted for the first time. the ink on the finger has almost worn off now. counting/results are due.

it was a tricky one. and somehow, at the end of it, i thought 18 years was simply too 'young' to be able to decide who can represent your constituency in parliament and/or which party can run a govt. that can help you make what you want your country to be.

rajiv gandhi could have been wrong there.

more on politics in later posts.

Notepad

One and a half years.

And allllllllllllllll we built was a notepad application without the backspace/delete key implementation.

we just expect the users to type properly. if they dont, they can always exit and restart from scratch!

its not our fault that they wanted to write a 200 page document using our notepad! ofcourse there is also the delay in noticing that there is a mistake cos we dont have the "spell check" feature in it. AND, to top it all, you simply cant exit anywhere you like. you can ONLY quit after you type every 30 lines! :D

Not at all proud of wat i did. I'm Sorry.

PS: just talking metaphorically. because i cant talk abt the actual product i am working on.

Random Design Lessons

a paradigm shift! lets talk software design. :D

There are probably two broad categories of design/development that actually happens in the product based software industry. (I've not worked in the services domain, however, if u read on, you will find an interesting argument)

1. Research and Development
2. Test and Development

RnD is when you know your requirements very well. You actually have a "design" phase only when the requirements are 'frozen', where you think thru the interfaces for the product. Then you have the "implementation". Testing for functionality, although necessary to avoid slip ups, is, by definition, not _very_ important/necessary. when you have a good design and u have enuf (i believe that any product takes a certain time to 'mature') time for implementation, testing only becomes a formality/confidence booster. testing for performance/load and interoperation is however, very important. you have many models to fit RnD. This is the type that goes by the text books. something that strictly follows process (there are some very good(wrt quality) companies that swear by process)

Then theres the second category of development. TnD is what it is fondly called.

Its very simple to understand. you are asked if you can "quickly" test and see if something can be done. You say, after running a few commands, figuring out some new algorithms, testing some apis, making some rough tweaks, that technically, it is possible. And thats where the "management" pitches in. Almost always, the contribution of the management chain to the technical value of a product is on the negative scale... ( i still have doubts abt the financial value, hence wont comment) if they work really hard, they can only worsen it, never make it better.
They say, what you have done as part of 'checking' whether something works, is enough! And it goes as-is into the production code.

And so, your product is considered to be 'ready' after a series of "test and development" cycles. there is very little or no formal design. Testing too, is, once again, overlooked, since you developed it by testing the same damn thing repeatedly, anyway!

In the services domain, i assume that you have projects to work on, rather than products. (you work 'with' products, not 'on' them). And that essentially forms the difference between the two categories. The development styles described are followed in a services based company too, i feel (I do not know for sure).

how i would define projects and products is : a product is something that solves a core problem that hasnt been solved before. a project is something that involves writing the business layer and hence customisez the product for a particular use case.

DevD

is an easy going, light hearted movie. nothing serious abt it, although at times it looks like the script writer and the director want u to think seriously abt certain issues. not sure who failed though. the actors or the director/sript writer.

as a fun movie, it totally rocked! mahie gill, as usual(from gulaal, for me), was amazing. attractive and pretty, also acts well (made me take her side!)
cinematography and music was good.

Random stuff

Legendary drive from home to office at 10AM. Not a single signal where i waited. It was either always green or would just flip when i looked at it approaching a signal and pile up of vehicles.
either bangaloreans have become extremely smart and efficient wrt using roads for commute OR
the traffic police have become extremely smart wrt managing inflow and outflow of traffic.
i really dont think i am capable of switching traffic lights yet. :P

whatever is the case, one extremely welcome change is, people are co-operative of my speed and manoeuvrability. :D

who gives me company while i drive? Radio.

unusual announcement: buy one, get one free!!!

you say: stale stuff... happens all the time with all kinds of stuff...

buy one flat and get one free!!! and it doesnt stop there, sell the flat you got for 'free' and get your original flat ALSO 'free'. hope they dont mean it the way 'free software' works. :P

shows people are finding it hard to sell flats. so much that u r given a flat free just for agreeing to buy one and finding another person who might wanna buy off you.
Ofcourse, the detailed terms and conditions will have a catch... waiting for it... this friday!