Saturday, October 08, 2005

The wipro experiance!!

The only software company I knew before I ever heard of something called as "software" existed is Wipro. And its because it not just in IT, its everywhere, from soaps (FMCG) to bulbs (CE). The big joke about wipro was when the newspapers highlighted "Wipro bought Chandrika Soap" and we were wondering ..we buy it every week. I worked in the Wipro corporate office for a week.It was an amazing office, the constructions were remarkable. The cafetaria was awesome and food was yummy and cheap. As an guest from IBM, I wandered around the campus which had swimming pool, tennis court and much more ...

Aura.....

Friday, August 19, 2005

db2 disconnect DB2DDC

I am moving to "Lab Services Team" for "Websphere Portal Server" inside India Software Labs.

As a fresher, I was inquisitive about most of things that can happen in Software Industry, fortunately or unfortunately I am still like that. These 2 years have been fantastic , with wonderful people and state of the art technology around. I feel proud that, I have seen the usage of what ever I have learned in college, call it operating system concepts/ data management/ compiler and theory of computation and what not. I think "Databases Management Systems" is only technology that uses all aspects of Theoretical Computer Science.

And one was answered the first day by "Krishnan". The question was "How fast I need to type letters in keyboard ?". Peeping into his computer screen, saw him logging into "Lotus Notes", couldn't count how many letter's he typed in a second. Never knowing the number of characters displayed in password screen is not proportional to the letters typed.

I owe a lot to two people, who has been my friend, guardian, mentor, team lead, guide...., and they are "Prasad" and "Suma",

I feel proud that, I have made more friends than colleagues. And all I take back with me is that.

I thank my management, for being with me all the time and understanding my career aspirations.

My watch tracked my Schoolmate.

I had broken the glass of my watch, and was happy to see its still running fine. I got a watchmaker shop after "Killipalam"
and before "Thampanoor" I suppose its called as "Chentitta".

I went in and, I understood I was talking to a real professional repairing watches ( He/She who dooes so is also called horologer).
The art of repairing mechanical things has always admired me. Sometimes I try to do these things,
and I have screwed up at least 5 watches in good health in my high school, because of which my "dad" stopped wearing watches.

The microscopic crank propelled by a very small spring or jerk from piezoelectric Quartz crystal, is 50000 feet view of the
technology that drives watches with minute and hour hands. Our horologer, has many open specimens of these watches in his
desk, I would say the skeleton of these time machines. I am sure, he doesnt have the architecture diagram, nor the work flow
graph, nor design spec for each timepiece. Yet he should have got smiles in many people because he got their watches working.
Watches are important to people mostly because its perfect gift and hence an emotional attachment for most people. FOr some its
their first earning, for some its status symbol and there are "n" number of reasons why we like watches.

We started talking, and he was proudly saying, I didnt have a chance to continue my studies, even if I was doing good in it. And
'I learned from "M G R" movies'. He has treasured a copy of MGR's Photo in his diary which I saw later.
He continues " I didnt let that happen to my children. I educated them in Arya Central School. All Four". I know Arya fee structure
was little above an average person can handle. So it should have been tight for him.

Later I found out the elder, "Sugandhi" is from our batch. I remember the her !!.
She had brownish hair, was slim and was fair.
Do any one else remember her ? She was with us till 10 th class. She stays opposite to "Jayanthi" teacher.

She has some optical instruments , bachelors and is studying masters as correspondence. Great to know we have a diverse crowd
if trace back our school mates. Most, like me has landed up slogging on keyboards.

I saw a glow in his face when he was talking about his second boy. He now works with Indian Airforce. And he took out his diary
and showed the money order, which was his boys first salary. I am sure he can tag is life "successful".

I got my watch back with new glass. And I want every one including me to have that glow in us, long after may be 30 years. Our
life should have meaning.

Its sentimental, I know. I some times get awakened by such thinking's. Cant help. May be my stay away from work prompted me.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Invisible Web: What it is, Why it exists, How to find it, and Its inherent ambiguity ?

The "visible web" is what you see in the results pages from general web search engines. It's also what you see in almost all subject directories. The "invisible web" is what you cannot retrieve in the search results and other links contained in these types of tools.


An Anatomy of Sarcasm ?

This site says lot about how our brain handles this complex communication. The ability to comprehend sarcasm depends upon a carefully orchestrated sequence of complex cognitive skills based in specific parts of the brain. I got really confused with paper and left it in between. May some day I will get time for both reading and understand this complex thing :) and ofcourse better theories would have come by then ;)

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

The Programmer's Search Engine -

"We're constantly searching the web and indexing the best developer sites. Browse DevSearcher by the categories below or enter a keyword for a specific search." This site seems to be provide a good index for searching code. So if you are a computer programmer do check this out.

Friday, July 01, 2005

1 B

Long sit in a class room and writing a test for first time in life!! . That was when I, a cherubic young boy named "Kiran " wrote entrance exam for getting into Arya Central School, which I hence forth address as Arya Central Jail. The school has taught me lot of things both good and bad all 12 long years I was there. The unforgettable is the journey to school back and forth, 20 long Kms cutting through the middle of the city called Trivandrum, boarding rickety buses, seeing new people...

I thought of thinking back 18 years and do a brain dump of what was my world then for me.

I passed the exam; of course my mom's friends helped me. I joined 1B, its all mess, lot of children, white shirt and ash knickers for boys and ash frocks for girls. I had a big bag and I came to school with my mom. 1B was in second storey of the building which stood facing us when we assemble for morning prayers. We all had a math’s note book with blue squares on it, a drawing book, and lot of colorful text books. I was learning writing new language "Hindi" and my mother tongue "Malayalam", never realizing the importance of learning these, and ending up in getting single digit marks for these in high school.
We got a peon with white hair who we all called as "Ammavan". A mass PT with a bald haired tamilian **PT sir** was terror, there were some boys who are like born with water bottles, never letting them off their necks, he pulled them off and made them stand with hands up away in the sun.
The class room had windows facing outside schools compound, and we had crows sitting in the fence. The children use to throw snacks out and crows use to grab it with no fault, and the one who made the mark is a blessed hero. I wonder what girls where doing then. We did have school bus for our school then, which I traveled only once.

We had a prayer hall just besides our building, it was a asbestos roofed building, this foyer was pretty big with shinning surface, had lot of pictures, statues and we use to queue up going there, and spirituality is the last thing that you expect from young tykes. There was fun in what ever was happening, every one was "happy-go-lucky". There were nerds, singers, dancers in the class. I was always a proud audience, that was were it started, me landing up no were in all these things all 12 years. Nostalgia!! No way we can get back these days.

You can see my first group photo; I am the naughty looking guy in the red oval.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Monsoon

One of my friends was describing what monsoon offers to people like me who are single and waiting for the time to strike..I have same to say for others like me on the same ship ..
"The monsoon has just started. The greenery is back and has induced a spark in life. Noting more romantic than a rainy day, drenched clothes, hot coffee and a wet and shivering girl by your side. Beautiful girls running for cover from the rains and muscular boys following in pursuit. There are abundant opportunities for the initiated and I am taking full toll of the rains here. The other day I had an encounter with a lady whom I had asked for directions without knowing that she was out there looking for "victims". For some reason something clicked, we made eye contact and
then in an instant all was back to normal. Society with all its
hypocrisy had taken over and we overcame our emotions to go separate ways. Do not let the monsoon's go waste...."

Monday, May 30, 2005

Inspired by Patricia Selinger

Patricia Selinger I got to read about an interview with an IBM fellow, who is privileged to work in Data management from the "Relational era" to the "XML era". Her name is Patricia Selinger presently the "VP Area Strategy, Information and Interaction".

We have lot of things to learn from her career and experience, from the decision to take "Technical" or "Management" career path to balancing work/life while working with people in different geographies.
I will give you a concise view about her interview. But I request you to read/hear this interview from
"http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/witexhibit/wit_fellows_selinger.html".

She took management path after 3 years of work and rose to fourth line in management. After which she routed back to technology for which received the title of IBM Fellow, an honor accorded only to the top 50 technical experts in IBM, for her exceptional technical work and leadership in relational databases.

Because of market requirement and to bridge gap between Research and Development, for a period of 3 to 5 years she and her team was doing FVT(Functional verification Test), unit test , specs all for DB2.

She was part of, what she calls it as 3 generations of Databases. One being the relational one on Mainframes, the second being the DB2 for LUW ( which had starbust compiler ) and the 3rd being the Unstructured data (XML) database management system, The Viper.

Her technical contribution was enormous, most of them relating to cost based optimizer, distributed relational model etc.. All of which you could find at "http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/indices/a-tree/s/Selinger:Patricia_G=.html"

She explains the people with whom she had worked with and was instrumental for the relational model of databases. Which all resulted in we working here :)

She describes, her working with Toronto team gave her time for her children helping in work/life balance.

What was her secret of success ?

Women in technology ?

An inspirational read, I hope it inspires you as much as it has done for me.

Aura ..

Friday, May 27, 2005

Viper is what I work on :)

"The ability to truly marry the unstructured and structured worlds is, to many, a database nirvana."

I work on the yet to be released version of DB2 v9.1 code name Viper. It is the database with native XML support, in the simplest terms This relational database stores XML as XML. As our rivals ..we dont store XML as relational table making wrapper around the database. The beauty is the new query language, the XQuery. We have Don Chamberlin in our team who was one of the pioneers who made SQL standards. XQuery is a W3C standard. Viper also has SQL/XML (2003) standard with which you can make you database queries return XML data. You can construct a XML node tree using you SQL. Isnt that beautiful.. Yes it is .. Its the world of unstructured data (XML) coexisting with structured data ( relational).
Hear from our leaders

Aura is working :)

Monday, May 23, 2005

10% of the Brain Myth

10% of the Brain Myth:

"There is no scientific evidence to suggest that we use only 10% of our brains. In other words, the statement, 'We use only 10% of our brains' is false; it's a myth. We use all of our brain. Let's look at the possible origins of this myth and the evidence that we use all of our brain."

Common Cold

Common Cold: "This site provides a comprehensive, updated and referenced source of information on the common cold. The goal is to provide a framework for critical thinking which will allow informed decisions about medical care for the common cold."

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Resources for Programming Language Research

A wonderful collection of information and resources for research in programming language theory, design, implementation, and related areas.

HealthyComputing -

"Positioning or using your computer improperly can lead to various injuries, from the short term discomfort of headaches to potentially debilitating conditions like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. HealthyComputing.com's assembled the world's foremost experts to provide unbiased information on computer-related health and safety. Developed through the joint efforts of nearly a dozen leading ergonomists, physicians, and physical therapists, HealthyComputing com is the premier source for office ergonomics."

About Haskell

About Haskell: "Haskell is a computer programming language. In particular, it is a polymorphicly typed, lazy, purely functional language, quite different from most other programming languages. The language is named for Haskell Brooks Curry, whose work in mathematical logic serves as a foundation for functional languages. Haskell is based on lambda calculus, hence the lambda we use as a logo."

Existential Primer

Existential Primer: Home Page: "Existentialism attempts to describe our desire to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. Unfortunately, life might be without inherent meaning (existential atheists) or it might be without a meaning we can understand (existential theists). Either way, the human desires for logic and immortality are futile. We are forced to define our own meanings, knowing they might be temporary. In this existence…
"

All you need is love

CODEPENDENCY: WHEN CARING BECOMES A DISEASE

CODEPENDENCY: WHEN CARING BECOMES A DISEASE: "So you've tried to 'stop caring' and found that it makes life dreadful? Maybe you don't have to relinquish core standards to be happier. Perhaps you're trying to eliminate the foundation and expect the building to continue standing. Maybe it's okay to 'care too much.' Can you 'care too much' and be happier than you are now? That would take a lot of re-evaluation...of yourself, of your spouse, of your family, maybe even your past. Now that's a challenge"

Computer Languages

I was always facinated by computing languages ..especially the way they have grown from the machine code ..to the very high level. It has been increasingly easier for user to write programs day after day .. May be the next version of Java ..the mustang
or the Visual studio for Longhorn.

Robert W Floyd, In Memoriam by Donal E Knuth

Biography by Knuth

"Nobody has influenced my scientific life more than Bob Floyd. Indeed, were it not for him, I might well have never become a computer scientist. In this note I’ll try to explain some of the reasons behind these statements, and to capture some of the spirit of old-time computer science. Knuth"

Aura..

Find a IBMer from the Internet ?

Click here !!
Search eg
If you want my details search here with Lastname as 'Nair' and First name as 'Kiran'

Aura ..

I was aired live

I was aired (both audio and video) couple of times live to more than 100 colleges of VTU EDUSAT session I was talking about Apache derby and DB2 software’s . This is frist time that I am talking to such a wide audience..it was really a nice experience .. in fact at many places I went out of words ..but I was given a recording cd for the same ..which I kept on playing in computer to see how it went . It had a peculiar sensation ...I was kind of attaint..But next time I saw my self I felt better..and it was very fine ..may be the 5th time I saw it .

Google Portal

Google has a portal now ...do try it ..its really use full ..you can search ..get news ..guotes ..check mails all in one window and set you page in your style

Google

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Google launches Video Upload Program

An Unfair and Unbalanced look at the left.<"Google launched the Google Video Search not to long ago and now they're offering to host your videos with the new Google Video Upload Program now in beta.

Submitted videos won't be available for viewing right away and will have to be approved by Google before being made available to the public but the service claims that you'll be able to make your videos available on Google for others to search, preview, (optionally) purchase, and play it."

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Top 10 XML Specifications Rejected by the W3C

This URL is has some fun: "Top 10 XML Specifications Rejected by the W3C

10. WS-IrishSpring: for scented, more pleasing SOAP packets

9. WS-UPS: for sending SOAP packets in real envelopes

8. WS-USPS: for sending SOAP packets that dont need to get there

7. WS-PrisonShower: for picking up the dropped SOAP packets

6. X-Wife: protocol for monetary transfer

5. WS-Insecurity: dating protocol for web services programmers

4. WS-Monopoly: protocol used to keep antitrust penalties to manageable levels

3. NICKLE: for encoding smaller binary attachments

2. SFFCI: Syndication Format for Complete Idiots

1. WS-XXX: bringing a business model to XML, e.g.


the storeroom


saucy


Chris Sells, Jason Whittington, Tim Ewald, Becky Dias & Brian Jepson
Presented at the Applied XML Developer's Conference West 2003
July 10th, 2003"

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Malayalam language

Malayalam is the major language of the state of Kerala, in southern India. It is one of the 22 official languages of India, spoken by around 30 million people. A person who speaks Malayalam is called a "Malayali" (or rarely, a "Keralite").

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Decisions !!

"Somewhere along the line of development we discover what we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else's life."

-- Eleanor Roosevelt

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in the lack of understanding, but in the lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Have courage to use your own understanding! Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.


Thanks,
Kiran

Can complexity be explained ?

... while we all know that unmastered complexity is at the root of the misery, we do not know what degree of simplicity can be obtained, nor to what extent the intrinsic complexity of the whole design has to show up in the interfaces. We simply do not know yet the limits of disentanglement. We do not know yet whether intrinsic intricacy can be distinguished from accidental intricacy.
-- E. W. Dijkstra, Communications of the ACM, Mar 2001, Vol. 44, No. 3

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Calendar & Easter History

Calendar & Easter History
I was wondering how easter dates are calculated, when my friend and collegue from Romania told me he is having it on May first and that He is a Chirstian Orthodox. I was confused. I have many orthodox friends in India, they never said they have easter on another day.
When I investigated and found that easter is calcuted in 3 ways and these three ways used in diffrent parts of the world.

METHOD 1 - The original calculation based on the Julian calendar

METHOD 2 - The original calculation, with the Julian date converted to the equivalent Gregorian date

METHOD 3 - The revised calculation based on the Gregorian calendar

And the link provides algorithms for calculations for these Easter dates.


~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
WESTERN ORTHODOX
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
23 April 2000 30 April 2000
15 April 2001 15 April 2001
31 March 2002 5 May 2002
20 April 2003 27 April 2003
11 April 2004 11 April 2004
27 March 2005 1 May 2005
16 April 2006 23 April 2006
8 April 2007 8 April 2007
23 March 2008 27 April 2008
12 April 2009 19 April 2009



Definition of Easter Sunday Date
Easter Sunday is the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon (PFM) date for the year. In June 325 A.D. astronomers approximated astronomical full moon dates for the Christian church, calling them Ecclesiastical Full Moon (EFM) dates. From 326 A.D. the PFM date has always been the EFM date after March 20 (which was the equinox date in 325 A.D.).

Easter Sunday date is the Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon (PFM) date
The PFM is the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon (EFM) date after March 20
PFMs are pre-defined (see above)
EFMs are approximated astronomical full moon dates, not actual astronomical full moon dates

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Spotting Fake Smiles

Most people are surprisingly bad at spotting fake smiles. One possible explanation for this is that it may be easier for people to get along if they don't always know what others are really feeling.

Although fake smiles often look very similar to genuine smiles, they are actually slightly different, because they are brought about by different muscles, which are controlled by different parts of the brain.

Fake smiles can be performed at will, because the brain signals that create them come from the conscious part of the brain and prompt the zygomaticus major muscles in the cheeks to contract. These are the muscles that pull the corners of the mouth outwards.

Genuine smiles, on the other hand, are generated by the unconscious brain, so are automatic. When people feel pleasure, signals pass through the part of the brain that processes emotion. As well as making the mouth muscles move, the muscles that raise the cheeks – the orbicularis oculi and the pars orbitalis – also contract, making the eyes crease up, and the eyebrows dip slightly.

Lines around the eyes do sometimes appear in intense fake smiles, and the cheeks may bunch up, making it look as if the eyes are contracting and the smile is genuine. But there are a few key signs that distinguish these smiles from real ones. For example, when a smile is genuine, the eye cover fold - the fleshy part of the eye between the eyebrow and the eyelid - moves downwards and the end of the eyebrows dip slightly.

As said by BBC

Monday, January 31, 2005

Enterprises Warming Up to Firebird Open-Source Database

Click here for the doc from eweek

"Firebird—an open-source relational database known for sizzling transaction performance—is surging in popularity in the enterprise and heralds growing acceptance overall of open-source databases, according to a recent study."

"The report also found that 60 percent of database developers plan to expose or invoke database operations through Web services. The most likely database operations to be invoked are stored procedures, at 22 percent, SQL Query Web services, at 18 percent, and XML Query Web services, at 15 percent."

Tech gadgets vs. tech knowledge

Tech gadgets vs. tech knowledge

IT'S SAD THAT TODAY'S KIDS DON'T SEEM TO BE INTERESTED IN STUDYING SCIENCE AND MATH
By Janet Perna

Some excerpts from her writing in Mercury news.

"The National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century revealed that by 2008, the technology-driven economy will add 5.6 million jobs in the health sciences and computer industries that require science and math skills. Meanwhile, more tech workers are retiring, and precious few are ready to take their place."


"Taken together, the black, Hispanic and American Indian communities constitute only about 6 percent of the 2 million scientists and engineers in the United States."

"We can do a number of things to improve this picture. We must support national advocacy, research and policy organizations that are working to redress the underrepresentation of women and minorities in technical careers. These groups need both funding and volunteers. And companies must focus on attracting and retaining women and minorities in information technology positions."

"But most of all, parents, teachers and business leaders -- all of us -- must encourage and influence our children to take a longer view of what education has to offer, which will lead many of them to find rich and rewarding careers in math and the sciences. Tell them and teach them about the exciting opportunities that await them over a lifetime. Our nation's future success depends upon this effort."

JANET PERNA, a former high school math teacher, is general manager of IBM Data Management and works out of IBM's Silicon Valley Labs in San Jose.


Thursday, January 20, 2005

Chennai
I was in Chennai last weekend. Chennai is a metropolis in south eastern tip of India. Its first time that I have made my foot marks in Chennai soil.Its a big city with its tradition intact.