Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Getting everyone on the same page

 

If you ask your fellow team members to explain what they understand by ‘Test Driven Development’, today you are likely to find very few common thought lines.

The reason behind this is not vague understanding, it is different application knowledge.

If the only tool one knows is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Similarly when somebody begins doing ‘Test Driven Development’, the initial learning curve to accept the way of writing software is pretty steep. There are no standards. One tendency is to copy and not think. Because there is no reference, One can either be happy with the frog-in-a-well living or completely insecure with the efforts. Whatever the case, getting things right in the first place is hard learn in the initial stages.

With continuous efforts and trial and errors, one can eventually discover the best practices by experience or by referencing the experts in the industry.

As a software architect, when a system design is completed, there is effort needed to bring all the developers on the same page.

I am trying to think on lines of documenting my experience and information sharing to get everybody to generate the common minimum standard output expected as a developer.

That is another problem to be solved.

Software Knowledge ‘Application’

 

When I was quite young, I was once asked a mathematical question to be solved mentally.

What is the result of 0.17 * 0.83 * 2 + 0.17 * 0.17 + 0.83 * 0.83 ?

It took me several minutes of mental calculation when I got the most approximate value.

It was one of the earliest A-HA moment of usage of learning equations in mathematics.

I thought it was cool. Who knew an equation like (x+y)^2= x^2+y^2+2xy would be useful mapping of the problem asked.

Another A-HA moment of mathematics had come when a friend discussed about the use of Curve equations in a computer program to determine the trajectory of a object thrown in space like a Baseball pitch ( Bowling in cricket parlance). It was astonishing to discover that even though I had memory to mug up all the equations in the world, I was not really applying the solution to the real context in the world.

Do you ‘always’ apply your engineering brain to solve all the problems you encounter in your daily life? Do let me know.

As a solution architect in the software career, I have encountered numerous challenges and resolved them. Many resolutions were top of the head, some were innovative thinking in the limited knowledge and some were mediocre. There is always a room for improvement in the next iteration.

According to my limited knowledge and experience, there are 3 kinds of knowledge out there.

One is Reference

Second is Mapping

Third is Extrapolating.

Reference knowledge can always be searched.

Whatever knowledge you already have at your disposal can be used to Map to a solution for a problem at hand.

Extrapolating requires ‘Mapping’ the right context to the right problem.

The main concern I have always had about education is ‘how do we use the learned knowledge in our head to resolve problems lying in front of us’.

As I see TDD examples in the search space, I find that most of the examples are pretty lame and not really teaching the mindset of Test First Development.

Secondly over a period of TFD, there are some best practices which one learns by refactoring and improving on every iteration.

Thirdly like with every new technology or like the Six Blind Men, everybody interprets the methodologies to suit their own perceptions and have a own variant of the methodology.

Given sufficient time, I would like to change the curriculum’s to include ‘Real World Application’ and ‘Problem Mapping’ skills to be imparted with every new skill out there in the world.

That is another problem to be solved.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

New Tech Term Blues

Whew !!!

This is Terrific.

Its 1:20 am EST as I wrap up reading to know more about some more acronyms like EDM, XBAP, yada yada yada

It seems as I keep reading/understanding/learning/applying these terms in technology, I am beginning to get inundated.

Is this ever going to end ?

I don’t know but am sure, this will get me work and earning my moolah.

The fundamentals remain the same. But the ideas to implement are rehashed and abstracted to fit into some kind of steady logical extension which makes some sense and begets question why was this there not earlier ?

Is it the early adopters who drive these change requirements or is it the early stumbles ?

I am not yet lost and hope you are not too.

In humans with time, there are changes. Some so subtle that it surprises the moment you become self-conscious, and some so distinct that your aura allows it to occur.

I was mentally crazy and physically lazy about keeping up to date with the latest trends in tech markets, but worry no more, I am back and this is going to rock, I am going to be better.

Attitude Always Optimistic.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Quote

“A camel is a horse designed by committee.” (Source)

Thursday, March 5, 2009

My First Ad









Wednesday, March 4, 2009

What is the Last Straw !?

From a personal point of view, I am one of the most impatient people around.

I have always believed in 'Persistence raises the level of your reward' but when it comes to waiting, I find myself quite wanting to achieve the virtue of patience.

It has been considered that wise people do not open their mouths till they have something to add to an conversation there by attributing to 'Speech is Silver, Silence is Golden'.

For as much as I know about India through its zillion stories and rich history, one thing is absolute 'India is a very patient country'. 'Father of the nation' symbolically and figuratively represents the virtues of the country which has been tolerant to innumerable wrongdoings against it.

A couple of decades back 'Silence and Non Action' against perpetuators of horrible crime by the government, I would have attributed it to weakness and division in the country, but today as I infer from news,analysis and posts in various media, I believe India is a very mature country and united under the facade.

But the patience/silence of a person is presumed to be its weakness by its enemies. That is exactly what has been happening currently. The anti establishmentarians and anti elements of peace are asking for wrath of the country by engaging in provoking incidents of violence in and around the world.

People never do what has to be done, they 'always' do what they want to do. Yesterday's attack on Convoy of Sri Lankan sports men is condemnable.

How many more people have to suffer and feel insecure before action is taken to correct the root of all the nefarious activities ?

What I can predict from here is, as a country we are running out of patience and its just a matter of time, when the anti-elements will be hunted and wiped out from the face of the world.

Monday, March 2, 2009

February 2009 Read/Watch/Learnt Update

 

This has been another month with lots of DVD viewing's and book reading.

Date Name Detail Rating Comment Category Status
Feb 2009 The Great Debaters
4/5
DVD Impressive

The Pink Panther
3/5
DVD

The Fountainhead
3.5/5
DVD

The Beautiful Mind
4/5
DVD Impressive

Amadeus
3.5/5
DVD Impressive

Medieval Times
2.5/5
Restaurant

Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People
4.5/5
Audio Book

Back To The Future
3.5/5
DVD

The Truman Show
4/5
DVD

Psych Season One Disc One
4.5/5
DVD Impressive

Master Of The Game Sidney Sheldon 4/5
Book

American Born Chinese Comic Book 3.5/5
Book

Shangai Baby Lei Wui 2.5/5
Book Entertaining First Half

Sadhu Miranda
3.5/5 Tamil DVD

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna
3.0/5 Hindi DVD

Airplane – Don't call me Shirley
2.0/5
DVD

Villu
1.0/5.0 Tamil DVD

Padikathavan
1.0/5.0 Tamil DVD

Santosh Subramaniam
3.0/5 Tamil DVD

Glengarry Glenross
3.5/5
DVD Good

The Boiler Room
3.0/5
DVD Good

Pulp Fiction
4.0/5
DVD Impressive

Bourne Identity
3.5/5
DVD

Psych Season One Disc Two
4.0/5
DVD

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Mind Tune Loop

 

There are some tunes/songs which keep looping in my mind throughout the day and sometimes for several days together.

Some times it feels pleasant but some times it drives me crazy.

The one I am currently hearing in my mind is children poem/song.

B I N G O

B I N G O

B I N G O

It keeps going on and on and on and on.

You can listen it here.

I had to post it and hope that now I get it off my mind.

Monday, February 23, 2009

OSCAR kondaattam !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! from my heart :)

After the OSCAR awards ceremony a friend of mine emailed me this. I had to post this.

After 17 years, Oscar comes back to India with a bang whose name is "Slumdog Millionaire" . :)) And worth the wait, should I say :))


Three Indians who have made the whole country proud surely deserve much more than a Red Carpet and an Oscar.


"This is just not a sound award, but a history being handed over" said Rusel Pookkkutty - the third Indian to win Oscar for the Best Sound Mixing for Slumdog Millionaire. Hadn't he been a failure in the Medical Entrance Examinations, he wouldn't be an Oscar winner today :)


"All my life I had the choice between hate and love. I choose love and here I am" - are the Golden Words uttered by A.R.Rahman when he recd the prestigious Oscar Award. He has recd. not ONE but TWO Oscars for The Best Original Score and The Best Song!


Lyricist Gulzar shares the award with ARR for the Best Song - "Jai hO" written for the film. Look at the instinct of the lyricist, who said it even before he got it "Jai hO" which literally means "Gotta win" :))))


The film itself was nominated under 9 categories and it swept 8 awards in total, which is incredible!


It's a great day for India!!!!!!! !!! And a memorable and a pride moment for us Tamilians.


We wish ARR all the best for more such opportunities for making India proud !


Best,
From An ordinary music lover.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

'Slumdog Millionaire' - IMHO an Average Masala film

 

Will 'Slumdog Millionaire' win the Best Picture award tonight in the OSCAR's ?

When I watched this movie, it was in its fourth week of run in the USA and the buzz surrounding it was enormous. Most of my friends were impressed by the movie and the felt quite good. The Media was declaring it as the best movie to come out this year.

It came as a no surprise for many that it was in the nominations for the best picture of the year.

I am still not certain why this movie has been able to touch everybody but not impress me.

Music by A.R. Rahman is certainly the highlight of the movie but I have heard so many excellent A.R.R. Creations and I know for certain this is not A.R.R's best.

The story about 'A Dharavi Guy' able to answer all the questions of the KBC Show and how his life is interspersed with the questions of the quiz is hardly innovative or unique. I had last year seen two movies which mentioned about this 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' show. One was a french movie 'My Best Friend' and another was a Tamil movie 'Koteeswaran'

So the novelty factor or the innovation factor was absent for me. So when the first flashback was over, the idea of visiting flashback for every question does not seem attractive OR does it?

Secondly when you watch the movies which are non-linear in narration, it takes brilliance of camera work, script, dialogue, cinematography and background music to keep the attention of the viewer.

'Slumdog' failed here for me. It did not hold my attention for long and I was lost in my own thoughts and reactions to some of the not-so-pleasing scene's in the movie.

Recent Best Picture OSCAR Movies like 'CRASH' ,'Forrest Gump' are up to the mark aesthetically, dialogues, background score in short in all aspects.

According to me (only me) Slumdog is a big letdown in all these. That is why in my humble opinion SM is an average Masala movie and should miss out on the OSCAR 'Best Picture' award.