But seriously!

Programming Olympiad

2009-08-17T01:08:00.003+05:30

Wonder why Indians did not make it to the top 25? Aren't we an IT power?

I guess the answer lies in the way our kids are taught programming - learning by rote, rather than learning to solve problems.

Infosys' and the TCS' are but legions of small time coders and script kiddies with nary an original product to show for it.

Tally Solutions is a notable exception... Are there other companies in India churning out original work?

Obsolete - technologies our son will never experience

2009-07-03T12:25:00.010+05:30

The BBC ran an article about a young boy trading his iPod for a Sony Walkman, the tape kind. It made me think about all the technologies that our 3 month old son will never experience... So here is a list.

Rotary Dial Phone

It worked, plain and simple. No batteries no hassles. It used pulse dialing and if the dial was locked... you could dial by tapping the disconnect button. If you wanted a 2 you would tap the button twice and zero would need 10 taps!

Floppy Disks

These came before the hard plastic enclosed 3.5 inch ones. They were really floppy! My first computer was a BBC Micro clone called the Dolphin from Hindustan Office Products Limited (HOPE). It came with a 5.25 inch external drive, but it formatted the disks differently. Computer class in school was a air-conditioned niche with several IBM XT computers and one IBM AT 286! We had to take our own floppies to class with our programs as hard disk space was limited. A couple of PCs had no hard disk and had two floppy drives. One would put a DOS floppy in drive A and drive B could be used to save data and programs. To make the floppy read only one would stick a paper tape and cover the notch on the top right corner.
Even the 3.5 inch ones are obsolete now with USB Flash sticks becoming common place.

Its exciting to be in the fast changing world of technology. To quote the tag line of a brand - "Next is what?"

Crucial Questions

2009-03-05T16:17:00.011+05:30

If you have watched any news channel long enough, you are sure to have seen a debate style program. The composition of the panel never varies. You have a couple of leftists from JNU who pretend to be the rational voice. You have the aggrieved party, usually a media savvy congressman or a quiet looking maulana with a fiery beard and oratory to match. On the other side is the centrist/ rightist politician who has oodles of patience to listen to everyone and quietly wait his turn only to be interrupted by the congressman, host and half the audience. These debates never come up with any solution. Its probably unfair to expect any. Progress is in asking the right questions. I am going to put forth a few questions that never get asked...

1) Given that Nation-State is the only non-exclusive identity that is accepted throughout the world, do Muslims in India feel that their national identity is bigger than their religious identity?

There is no running away from this question. The leftists will stand up and shout that we are trying to brand the whole community anti-national. All that din cannot hide the fact that one of the main contribution from the muslim community to the freedom struggle, the Khilafat Movement, was in fact a pan-Islamic movement. Terrorism cannot be successful if there is no support from local populations. Thousands of Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals disappear every month and melt into the muslim masses.This cant happen unless the religious and filial ties are stronger than nationhood.

2) Given that there is a strong concept of Kafir or non-believers that is characteristic of Islam, what is the stated stand of Indian Muslims towards other faiths?

Like the scene in Lage Raho Munna Bhai, where a prospective groom is judged based on how he treats people lower in stature to himself, we need to judge Islam by the way Muslim majority countries treat people of other faiths within their borders.

Even in Kashmir, a muslim majority state, Hindus and Sikhs live in a constant state of fear. There are probably more kashmiri pundits in Bangalore than whole of Kashmir.

3) Are Indian muslims open to reforms in education and common law?

Muslim leaders are always complaining that there is no progress in their communities. What have they done to join the mainstream? Have they reformed their education system to include more secular topics. Are they willing to adopt measures to improve resources available to their children by having fewer births? There were villages in UP state that did not participate in the Pulse Polio program as the mainly muslim population thought vaccine was un-Islamic. They not only put their children at risk but also exposed millions of others to the virus they carry.

What did the government do? They begged and pleaded, with the rumor mongering imams, instead of throwing them in jail for endangering public health and safety.

Its about time we found answers for these questions. Given the population growth of the muslim community is higher (by how much is disputed, but nobody disputes the fact that it is higher) I leave it to the readers, as an exercise, to imagine life in a muslim majority India.

Fiat Linea - my next car!

2009-02-08T00:53:00.000+05:30

Hinduism and Free Software

2008-10-12T15:47:00.004+05:30

My friends know that I never lose an opportunity to help people use Linux and other free software. I have consciously not done the same for my religion. The events in the recent past have forced me to think and I found a lot of parallels between religion and software development process.

Ownership.
Hinduism does not have a single prophet, book or church that can claim to represent the essence of the religion. Since no-one person owns it means everyone does. Every Hindu has a stake in protecting our way of life. Every other religion can be traced back to one person who started it.

Collaborative.
You can contribute to the religion in any way you can. Watching the Ganesha festivals around the country is a revelation. Some sing, some dance, some make tableaus. Everybody can collaborate. From time to time there have been great men and women who have given a new direction to Hinduism. The contribution of the 'hugging saint' is as important as that of Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhava in their time.

Diversity.
There are different distributions packaged around the kernel of Hinduism. Shaivaite, Vaishnavite or a Shakti cult there are different flavours to suit everyone’s taste. Then there are the numerous followers of Sai Baba. There is a lot of diversity within the Hinduism.

Customised.
You choose the bits you want. Bhakti, Karma or Gyana choose your path to be one with the Absolute. If you like rituals, the pomp and the splendor – great! If you want an austere lifestyle with a lot of reflection and philosophical thought, you are welcome. There are no hard and fast rules. To be a Hindu you just need to believe in the core concepts of Karma and Moksha.

Contrast this with proprietary religions where you locked in to one doctrine and philosophy. Do this or you are damned, don't do that or you are damned! You should know something’s amiss when the person talking about abortion and contraception is your 'holy man' and not your doctor!

HP Laser Jet 1020 on Ubuntu Dapper

2006-07-14T00:21:00.000+05:30

HP Laser Jet 1020 is an affordable printer that (currently) sells for about INR 8000. The performance is nifty and the quality of print is good. But the printer does not work out of the box on Ubuntu Dapper. However, help is available...

This website has all the details necessary to get the printer working. I will summarise the steps needed for Ubuntu Dapper below.

Uninstall the existing driver package. Say yes to the prompts that follow.

$ sudo apt-get remove foo2zjs

Install make and gcc for compiling.

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential

Download driver package

$ wget -O foo2zjs.tar.gz http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/foo2zjs.tar.gz

Unpack it.

$ tar zxf foo2zjs.tar.gz
$ cd foo2zjs

Compile and install the various components.

$ make
$ ./getweb 1020
$ sudo make install
$ sudo make cups
$ sudo make install-hotplug

Detect and install the printer through the gnome applet.

$ sudo gnome-cups-manager

You can confirm the printer is installed by printing a test page.

I am not sure why the version of foo2zjs that comes with the distro fails. These steps should work for most systems but YMMV. Check the INSTALL file that comes with the tarball for more details.

I have my reservations.

2006-04-11T20:20:00.000+05:30

A critique of the current and proposed reservation policies in INDIA.

I am not against affirmative action per se. I refuse to call it reservation, because the word reservation somehow lends itself to mean that the it is the right of the categories of students to get that seat even if they do not meet the basic criteria. Like all other government schemes I agree with the intent but disagree with the implementation. These are a few suggestions for our law makers to consider.

Targeting. If anybody takes the trouble to profile the students benefited by reservations they will find that a large percentage of them are from well to do families. I have heard of many such instances where the parents are IAS officers! The need of the hour is to evolve a fool proof procedure to exclude as the Supreme Court puts it the 'creamy layer'. Apart from the economic criteria that everybody is talking about, we should also exclude students if one of their parents is a graduate. These candidates from a educated family would need to compete in the general category and if selected can apply for a fee waiver based on their economic status. According to me the biggest disadvantage is to have illiterate/semi-literate parents. The affirmative action policy needs to target these students specifically.

Selection Process. The current selection process for reservation categories is demeaning at best. They are made to feel like second class citizens by having a separate list. If I was an SC/ST/OBC candidate I would have sued the government for the discrimination. I wouldn't want the stigma of being a reserved candidate as opposed to a merit candidate to follow me all my life. The correct way to go about affirmative action is for the government to decide what percentage of additional weightage the candidate will enjoy taking into account his socio-economic status after discounting the educational status of his parents. A single merit list needs to be put up after taking into account the additional weightages and the seats allotted. This way the reserved category students join the mainstream in a transparent way. This process could be randomly audited by the a commission to fine tune the weightage and to correct any bias.

Bridge Courses. In spite of the additional weightages, there will be a few students who will miss out by a slight margin. For these students with potential, a bridge course needs to be conducted similar to what the IITs are currently doing. This course should focus on the fundamentals making the students better equipped to do well in the course. If necessary, a student may apply for stipend during the bridge course.
For every student who benefits from the reservation policy, there are a hundred of them who drop out of school. These school dropouts cannot enjoy the fruits of this legislation because their parents are too poor to send them to school. They need to work for two square meals. But after 50 years in power, why is the Congress so slow to do anything but pay lip service to these disadvantaged millions. This is because primary education as a vote plank has no takers. Also, it is easy to bamboozle already existing institutions to allow for reservations. But it is difficult to create institutions across India's rural expanse to spread primary education. While the technology companies recognise the importance of primary education and are adopting villages and rural schools, the government is hitting at its roots by stifling the flow of meritorious students through centres of higher learning.

If the current law is passed without recognition of merit, India Inc. will lose its competitiveness. In the days of the WTO, companies will relocate to places where skilled manpower is available.

From BangLinux! to Foss.in

2006-03-29T18:28:00.000+05:30

The first Open Source conference I attended was organised by a commercial company WROX publishers. These contradictions are inherent to the open source world. There are many business opportunities other than charging the user by the number of processors and kitchen sinks he has. Wrox's business plan is to capitalise on the low quality documentation in the OSS world and sell books fill the gap. They can as well package the software with the book. Even the full version does not cost them anything.

The open source events have come a long way since then and the quality has only improved year on year. The spread and depth of the talks have increased. Student participation, crucial to the next wave, has been on the rise with VTU (Visweswaraya Tecnical University) giving attendance for students who attend the event.

To go full circle, the focus this year needs to be on the commercial aspect of open source. Apart from talks and BOFs (Birds of an Feather), we need to rope in venture capital firms who have experience in investing in open source start ups. This should give our students and enthusiasts the confidence that open source is a viable business model.

Unemployed or unemployable?

2006-03-24T11:18:00.000+05:30

My dad once said, "There are no unemployed people in India; there are only unemployable people." This was proved once more at office yesterday as I interviewed prospective call-center employees. Here are some of the gems!

Candidate 1: This lanky, casually dressed guy saunters in with a one page resume in his right hand. His other hand is firmly inside his pocket, seemingly anchored to something heavy in a desperate effort to balance his upper body that is leaning to his right.

Me: Could you please go and come back without your hand in the pocket.
He goes back and after a few moments re-enters with his upper body leaning even more to the right. The rest of the interview is uneventful. His qulaification (SSLC) is not enough; his command of the english language, rudimentry at best.

Candidate 2: He is dressed in bright colors that are too loud. The last three candidates seem to be friends from gauging from the similarity in their resumes. They all had 'playing snooker as one of their hobbies. They frequent a snooker parlour called Catch 22.
Me: How often do you go to Catch 22?
C2: Mmmm, aahh. (Mumbles something.)
Me: Let me rephrase, how often do you play snooker at Catch 22?
C2: (Bends down suddenly and acts as if he is crying.) Sir, sniff sniff.
Me: What Happened?
C2: I dont understand the word (often).
Me: Thank you. We will get back to you.

Candidate 3: He must be the guy who has got the other jokers along. He is full of confidence. His resume is the super set of all the others. Mateen, one of the team leaders, is with me.
Mateen: Are you here seriously looking for a job. Or are you here to check out your inerview skills?
C3: To check out...
Mateen: You are very good. Thank you!
C3: Thanks. (Walks out.)

I ended up advising most candidates on what they need to improve on. Some of them took the feedback positively. The others preferred to spend forty rupees per hour on snooker but didnt want to buy an english newspaper to improve their english, leave alone joining a course.

There are few unemployed people in India, despite all the education, there are lots of unemployable people. We should stop waiting for the government to deliver and make career counselling a part of the curricullum in schools, so that our youth have a chance to aquire skills necessary for their chosen paths.

Crash

2006-03-19T08:27:00.000+05:30

As a species we are conditioned to see our surroundings in the colours of our previous experiences. Sometimes when a colour is missing from our palette, we fail to see even the obvious things around us. More colours get added to our palette as we absorb more experiences and are open to people and ideas. When we open our minds to new possibilities our experiences become richer and more colourful.

The movie Crash is a dramatic portayal of race relations in LA. There is no comforting delineation between good and evil, instead there are a melange of flawed characters. Everyone has a stereotypical picture of the 'other'. The carjackers view all white people as the opressors and as fair game. The District Attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his wife (Sandra Bullock) view people of other races with mistrust and fear. The cop (Matt Dilon) is scornful and hates black people for his fathers economic probelms. The reasons are many, the outcome - racial tensions.

The movie works at many levels. One one level it expose the prejudices of the characters, on the other it exposes our prejudices towards the characters. The good cop who squirms as his partner molests a black woman is in the end is a killer who kills a black man because he believes most black men carry weapons. The bad cop who is blatantly racist in the begining is the one who risks his life to save the very same woman. From the events in the first part of the movie we have made up our minds as to who are the good guys. The director then forces us to discard those preconcieved notions as he turns the characters around.

A very good movie to watch and discuss with your friends. The best scenes are perhaps of the mexican locksmith and his daughter. Its very moving and honestly I cried when the Persian shopkeeper shoots the kid. Do watch this movie and tell me what you feel.

55 words

2005-10-03T01:07:00.000+05:30

I have been tagged by Ranju the *only* person I know who blogs regularly. So I guess the tag chain is going to end with me. :( ,/p>

So here's my story. It has been edited to make the limit. ;)

Where do you want to go, madam?”, asked the conductor. Waking up suddenly from her reverie, Suman looked around to get her bearings. She quickly spotted the Indian Express building to the left and said “Yeshwanthpur” handing him the change she was clutching involuntarily. Closing her eyes, she escaped into the world of her dreams.

'Toons for Management

2005-02-12T01:51:00.000+05:30

Those of you who feel that Dilbert should be recommended reading in a B-school, this book is a must read. "Polar Bear Pirates and Their Quest to Reach Fat City : A Grown Ups' Book for Kids at Work" is a long title for this rather thin paperback. When I saw this book at Gaays house, I was smitten with curiosity. The bold title and
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;cartoon on the cover led me to believe it was a children's bed time story.

When I went through the first few pages I realised that it was a far serious book than it looked. It is a very light reading and is best for those daily commutes. The book is very well written and the highlight is an engaging description of the characters. I could immediately think of a few people at work who completely match one of the characters. The easiest to spot is a Bloater. The phrase "...because I said so..." is a dead give away. Every organisation also has its fair share of Neg Ferrets and Sinkers. (Read the book to learn more about them.)
The rest of the book keeps up the interest created by the characters as we follow the Polar Bear Pirates on their way to fat city. But whats defnitely missing is a narrative. It has the most briiliant characteisations but no story line.
Adrian Webster, the author is a succesful salesman and motivational speaker. He started his career as a policeman. He has a lot of experience selling in the IT industry.

Benny in Bangalore

2005-02-01T23:40:00.000+05:30

Yes! Benny was in Bangalore. Not Benny Hill the comedian but Benny Hinn the televangelist. Why he chose Bangalore, the silicon plateau of India was not clear. The BJP (a major political party in India) objected to his presence and staged a bandh on that day.

Though none of my christian friends commented about him, they must be quite disgusted. This man has a history of turning religion into a profitable enterprise and has his share of controversies. A Google Search on Benny Hinn had quite a few critical sites. This one Benny Hinn - Pros & Cons talks about some of the controversial statements by him.

If a man like Benny Hill can operate in the US of A which is the most developed country in the world, then God save the illiterate people of third world countries like Kenya. It was documented that 4 people died during his performance in Kenya. There is no scientific evidence for the healings. Even here it was not the local doctors who checked and certified the healing but doctors from Benny Hinn's ministry itself.

There is no accountability for the money he collects. Dateline NBC has done an expose on his activities and his lifestyle. He claims to fund his expenses through royalty income from his book and asserts that all the donations go to his ministry. But whats morally questionable is the fact that his ministry is the biggest buyer of his books and merchandise. Now imagine I am raising money for the Tsunami victims and declare that all the money collected will be used to re-build houses for the affected fisherfolk. There is nothing wrong with that. But if I own a cement company and source all the cement for the construction from my own company, I am indirectly benifitting from the donations. See?

With his show over Benny Hinn has done one thing good. He has re-affirmed my faith in Hinduism as the most democratic religion in the world. Atleast, when Lord Ganesha drank milk he did so in all homes across India cutting across caste and creed and you didnt have to donate money to somebody only to have yourself pushed off the stage!

Note: Benny Hill the comedian died in 1992 and has nothing to do with the Hinn fellow whatsoever.

Sun's plans...Anti-Linux?

2004-09-24T20:04:00.000+05:30

Sun's plans...and how they could go wrong - ZDNet UK Comment

This is a far fetched plot. If this is not a joke, then surely the management of SUN need to be tested for shizophrenia!

The author (of the plot and the article) have missed out an important player in this game. Novell. Novells backing of linux via buyout of Suse is an important factor. It has lent a lot of credibility to Linux, especially in developing countries like India. Indian companies still employ low cost networks of DOS and Netware. Apart from this vast install base, Novell also boasts of a wide network of training centers.

These training centers have a lot of credibility in India as a sure path to a lucrative job. Novell can easily leverage this for Linux training and they have already begun (see Novell Training. This ZDNet interview with Juergen Geck, chief technology officer (CTO), Suse Linux, illustrates the path Novell is taking. Geck says that Novell is adding 110 training institutes through the franchise route to expand their presence.

Combined with similar efforts from Redhat and a wee bit of support from the goverment, India could very well become the source of trained Linux engineers for the world. This also means that the TCO for Linux will be further reduced in a price sensitive market like India, the future large market for SUN.

China's Linux initiatives are so well known that I need not dwell on that subject. However whats forseeable is that companies competing for a piece of the pie in china must have a Linux strategy in place.

Will it finally dawn on SUN?

MBA Aspirants

2004-09-22T22:38:00.000+05:30

I Ran a search for resources of management education in India and found a very informative website Cool Avenues.

Especially useful is the placement related information. It has statistics about what the distribution is with respect to different job types.

I have signed up for their newsletter with alerts for various important date.

Festival

2004-09-18T16:29:00.000+05:30

I wish all the readers a happy 'Vinayak Chaturthi'.

This festival is proof that Hinduism is alive and adapting. All over India people celebrate this festival by worshipping Lord Ganesha, the elephant headed God.

They show their devotion by participating in many cultural events. These range from traditional Indian dance forms to the latest moves in a Bollywood flick or the moves of Micheal Jackson. From the rich rendition of Carnatic music to the soundtracks of popular movies, its normal to find them all.

For the God of learning this mixture of cultures is a fitting tribute.

AMD or Intel?

2004-09-16T22:46:00.000+05:30

The local LUG (linux users group) had a post discussing which processor would be better.

I dont know any better as I never could afford a 'genuine intel' but I think AMD deserves a prize just because they changed the focus away from processor speed. Increaseing the speed of the processor does not do much to the performance of your PC as say doubling the RAM.

If you are seriously considering buying an AMD make sure you get an ASUS motherboard. VIA seems to be the cause for most of the problems AMD is known for.

Big Brother

2004-09-13T22:51:00.000+05:30

My father's friend, a Nepali Doctor, was in town for a conference. We went up to his hotel to meet him yesterday. Over dinner the conversation was predictably on the subject of children and grand children until it suddenly turned to politics.

This is when I realised that the political debate in the Hindu Kingdom centered around India. This preoccupation was not a positive thing. Both of them felt that New Delhi unnecessarily interfered in the affairs of the kingdom. Specifically, they felt the prime minister was almost always an Indian puppet.

This contrasted with what I fathomed was the level of influence of Indian foriegn policy in the neighbourhood. Surrounded by a hostile Pakistan and Bangladesh and not so cordial Sri Lanka, Nepal with its predominantly hindu population seemed like a natural ally. If educated Nepalese (my fathers friend received his medical degree from India) harboured such views, then what can be said of the common man.

Is this the symptom of failed foreign policy, or is this paranoia induced by India's 'big brother' like presence? Whatever the answer to this question, we need to re-think our strategy in dealing with our neighbours. Some of the steps to engage them in trade has not taken shape due to constant bickering by India and Pakistan in all regional fora.

Like the saying goes 'good fences make for good neighbours', let us police our borders to prevent anti-social elements from seeking refuge across the border. This one step should see a lot of reduction in ill will among the Nepalese. Will the politicians wake up to this challenge?

Nine-Eleven

2004-09-12T11:45:00.000+05:30

Today there was a program on CNN about the issue of outsourcing. This being an election year in the US the rhetoric is quite understandable. But what was interesting is that all of the Americans (except a congressman) felt like a victim of outsourcing. I feel that Americans have lost their self confidence. Is this in part due to the debacles they are facing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Or, is it entirely due 'middle class' jobs moving to India en mass?

I work in a contact center where our most important (and perhaps only) client is the British arm of an Italian ISP. While the people in general are resigned to the reality of 'flight of capital' especially to other European countries, they are slightly agitated by the call center jobs moving here. Initially, there were a few Brits who came here to train us, but they were directly hired by our company and were not employees of our client.

They felt no guilt or humiliation in training us for a job they had lost. If they did, they did a pretty good job of suppressing their emotions. After their contract ended they went back only to be hired again in the company with a more responsible job. At the same time there are few people believe that we are doing menial tasks at the fraction of the pay. They are mindful of the talents and skill they bring to the process and how that has made a difference to both the organizations.

The outsourcing phenomenon, I feel, are linked to an aging demographic and a marked difference in purchase power parity between the West and the developing countries. This was artificially created the systematic plundering by the colonial powers. Now, the same difference is back to haunt them with the specter of job losses. This is the natural consequence of opening up of the markets. The growth of outsourcing will continue as long as the gap between East and West reduces. This will remove the cost incentive for outsourcing and will to a stagnation of the outsourcing industry. Only those who add significant value to the clients business process will remain.

Until then America will have to learn to survive in the globally competitive environment. Stopping outsourcing will only accelerate its demise and lead to erosion of its clout as the foremost backer of open markets. Welcome, middle ages.