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 ..

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 :)

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."

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

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."

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"

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").