Find the Angle - A Revolution....A brain teaser !

Getting mechanical in our day to day grind, working hard or hardly working, sometimes we all tend to feel...
"damn, where did those days go, when we used to solve interesting Mathematical and Physics problems?"
Did our grey cells loose their luster ?
Or is it just that we became so busy with the laborious daily routine, that we lost the enthu and energy to tackle some real challenging stuff, that we were all good at, one point of time ?

Thanks to Caps (Ravi Kiran) for a forward he shot out a couple of months back, it did tickle the grey matter of quite a few around, in my work place.

Let me get started with the what is expected of this problem.

Find the Angle "a" !!

Although it might look too simple to begin with trust me, it will surely refresh your geometry and if needed Trigonometry too !

Once you get involved, Your mind will start running wild about 7th-9th class math (Indian Education System that is) or 9th - 12th grade (American of course, sure as for math for kids, they lag behind big time !) geometry/trigonometry/algebra, etc.

If you did not sweat too much to arrive at the solution to this question, then sure, its your perception and modesty that it came easy to you, coz in the background you did work quite as much as most of the others, trust me. :)

Why is it a Revolution?

A simple puzzle or a problem that challenges one's brain could very well tickle a hurricane, read through and you will know what I exactly mean.

Amidst my chaotic schedule, I did venture a good number of hours to revitalize my math to arrive at a solution to this problem. One would guess, apart from " Sum of three angles in a triagle = 180 degrees" there would be something else that might be needed to finish this one off. But what is it ? How do you recall it? Of course one can cheat by drawing the triangle to scale, and find the angle...but thats not what we are talking about. Thats the method of give-up-on-the-first-shot-ers.

To cut the long story short, I tried it for few hours, and gave up on it, feeling its really not worth (doh!) spending more time on it. It somehow stuck with me. I kept going back to it, on and off, starting all over, again and again and again. At which point I said, I need to get this out to other like-minded/challenge loving people, who like me at one point were too darn good at cracking these things, and somehow got busy with their daily routine and grind.

I've arrived at a state of mind where, solving the puzzle was not as important, as seeing the pleasure the brute enthusiasm, the zeal, the grut, the grind in seeing the folks around me (especially at work, for some reason) to enjoy the feeling of doing something intellectual for a change.

So, it started off with a casual conversation over a coffee at work, with Uvi, AjayJ, Keith, John D, SujitM and Sireesh. Their eyes lit up seeing a triangle, to start with. I mean, c'mon, how frequently will you see people at work do things like these.

During the course of the next week or so, this puzzle was changing hands faster than a spam mail ! Ok Ok thats stretching it a bit too far, but you get the point. People of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicity, were getting involved. It even went to the extent, that it made its way onto the board of one of the conference rooms, and people who gathered around ran around to pick up a paper and pen to grab the gist and go back to their desks to solve it !

The Solution
Thanks to the commitment and zeal of AjayJ, who by the way, derived way many things to motivate challenge and encourage himself to finally get to the bottom of the puzzle. Coming from a family of math scholars from India, as he recalls, he was quite obligated to spend that extra energy, to not to ignore and move forward with the solution. Again, most of us would be able to do it, but it takes what it takes to finally cross the finish line, and he deserves to get the credit for that !

So far its been an amazing experience to see so many people around me dig in and try to solve it albeit their backgrounds and no matter how busy they are, what problems they have or what position they are in.

To justify all, I will publish the solution, as we arrived at, a few days from now, and in the interim would appreciate other readers out here to chip in and see if they can arrive at the finishing line !

And the Solution is: http://www.mediafire.com/?9pf9kmhulye

Cool toys to get your hands on...

Wanted to do this post for quite a few days now. Ended up getting few cool toys recently, which did change my lifestyle a bit. Boys with no Toys is a no-no

Harmony 880 Remote Control

Now that the football season is picking up the pace, between Indian Idol, Gemini TV (A must for the N to have), I needed one single magic wand to keep jumping between multiple devices, multiple rooms. tada! enter the Harmony 880 remote control.


My equipment: Panasonic 50" Plasma TV, DVR 522, Motorola Cable Box
Harman Kardon 520 Receiver, HK CD changer, Tape Deck
Bose Speakers, Panasonic DVD changer, Sony VCR, Sony Playstation


That will tell you how many remote controls sit on my coffee table. And if I am shuffling around between the multiple input devices and switching between the aspect of 16:9 vs 4:3 etc, one can imagine what a task it would be, especially with a 2 year old at home, who knows what these remote controls do !

I know there are zillions of universal remote controls out there, get one and spend a day or so to scan for codes and breeze through manuals and at the end of the day, you might still be left high and dry, still expecting more as it would not have lived up to its expectations nine times out of ten. The Harmony devices beat that scenario hands down.

The 880 comes with a USB cable, a docking station to charge the Li-ion battery - Yup! Bye bye to AAA or AA batteries ! Now you have the freedom to use them in your kids toys even more. It comes with a CD that would install the Harmony software, which pulls the device codes on a regular basis from the web.

Like one of the old Hero Honda commercials from India says: Fill it, Shut it, forget it. The Harmony remote is that easy to setup and operate. Once you note down the models for your devices and punch them into the harmony s/w, it gives you the option to set up "Activities" which is the best part of this remote. "Watch DVD" "Watch PVR" "Listen to FM" "Play Game" etc, can be set up with ease. Once the remote is updated, bingo..one click and it turns on or toggles between multiple devices, switches between video 1, hdmi 1, and other inputs that you chose to operate your inputs on.

Just love it. Its one of the best devices one could ask for. Makes life easy and watching TV or listening to music more pleasurable experience. For a person like me who is not much into shows, predominantly a HD, News and Sports guy...its totally cool and amazing to have the Harmony 880. One might wonder why spend 120 bucks on a remote control...think again, its totally worth it !


Garmin Nuvi 350

Its needless to say what a device the nuvi 350 is. After a lot of deliberation and talking to my fellow 'tronics buffs, I ended up getting the Nuvi 350.


Again, for a typical NewJersian, it totally makes sense to have a GPS, and thats because, if we really calculate, on an average a normal not so crazy about driving around type of person would end up spending atleast 10 hours per week on the roads in NJ. Why? hmm...let me see...in NJ when we say "oh! we are right around the corner" it would mean a 15 min drive. When we say, "oh! Edison/Oak Tree is 40 min from my place" it means you are atleast 4 towns away. Bottom line, yes, we drive a lot in NJ just to exist, not even to live a decent social life...throw in the trips to JFK or sightseeing in the Big Apple...as we say around here...fo ge da ba dit !


Yes a GPS is totally handy and sometimes a must. No, one would not need a traffic update equipped one, coz pretty much most of the radio stations have nothing much to talk about other than traffic, weather and how convoluted the state political system is. One will have traffic analysis every 20 min atleast, encompassing reports on every major highway that cuts thru your social path.


Yes, I know I am not writing much about the device that I bought. It really would not need a review. Its pretty cut and dry when it comes to Nuvi's features and capabilities. The best part of the Garmin devices is, their pocket size. The TomTom XL was a close competitor in my quest, but as SasiKanth puts it, "It really doesn't matter dude! They are the same".


Its just surprising how few toys just elevate one's spirits, and just how few little things here and there make such a huge difference about how we deal with the day to day grind.


NO, I dont have the Nintendo Wii yet...I am not getting enuf time to play my PS2 even. Oh, and I forgot to mention the XBox with Halo 2 sitting in my basement that KK left for me, while he was busy changing his coordinates to NH.


So long folks!

Happy 60th Birthday INDIA !

August 15th....60th Birthday of Mother India !
To write about a phenomenon called India, would be like showing a mirror to the Sun...all you could get or capture would be the bright shine to your eyes, the blinding glare that one won't be able to fathom and withstand for too long.

Green Card Priority Dates - now current

As most of you might have already noted, the priority dates have become current for pretty much all the categories for filing the i485 the final and main phase for applying for greencard. If this sounds elusive and unknown to you, then probably its not applicable to you....but if you can remotely relate to it, then this is of utmost importance.

The priority dates for filing for i485/EAD/Advance Parole have come through big time in June 2007 Visa Bulletin. This pronounced a huge relief for a lot of people who have been in wait mode for quite some time...in essence atleast for ~4-5 years. And July Visa bulletin pronounced even more freedom...anyone with any priority date from any country can now apply for 485/EAD/AP. Please check the following URL for the most current priority dates:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html

What this means:
Any one who has filed for Labor Clearence, and has it approved, can now file for 140 concurrently with 485/EAD and Advanced Parole. People who have already filed for 140 and have it approved, can go with 485/EAD/AP directly.

Let me cut the chase short and provide some valuable information for people intrested and in the crux.
What is the documentation needed for filing for 485/EAD and AP ?

Here is a short list:
Each of these is needed for each person filing for 485.

I-485 Filing required Documentation:

I-485 Application form
I-765 EAD Application form
I-131 Advanced Parole Application form
G-28 Attorney representation form
G-325A Biographic Information Sheet
I-693 Medican Examination form ( Need this to be in a sealed envolope from a USCIS certified Civil Surgeon)
Birth Certificate
Copy of Entire Passport
6 Passport size Photographs (2 for 485, 2 for EAD and 2 for AP)
I-94 Both sides
3 years of W2s and Tax Returns
Copy of I-797 approval for I-140
Copy of Approved Labor Certificate
Copy of Approved I-140
Copy of Degree Certificate (Masters and BS)
Copies of most recent paystubs (If filing with the same employer, who did your LC and 140)
Copy of I-797 for current and previous H1Bs

You dont need G-28 if you chose to file by yourself.
Some attorneys dont require LC, Degree Certificates, PayStubs.
If you are filing by yourself, you might need to provide Financial statements of your company upon on RFE, if needed. Attorneys usually include this in the packet they send.

Since we all are pretty much in the same boat...hell ya for crying out loud, on the same SHIP....since its all one big pool of a happy family now *wink* .... we sure can share our experiences through our usual channels !

Good Luck and God Speed !!

Three weeks of Soul Searching...

I have been yearning to do this post, but kept pushing it off for a later. Trying to figure out what exactly do I want to include, itself was a taxing thought on my mind.

And then I realized, probably that was the result of availability of time - a luxury that got inflicted onto my dynamic mind, as soon as Neers and Varny went to India, for a quick 3 week trip.

The stage was not set in a timely manner, I should say. It all began on a casual 'over-the-coffee' conversation between Neers and me. And then she popped the question...doh! not that one you silly...remember? we've been married for 5 years now :D

She popped the question: "Hey, what if I go to India for few weeks, now that I am on the bench". At first I brushed it off...but it did tickle the thought in my head that probably it was practical afterall. And when things worked out in our stride during the next few hours, it was by evening that we finally digested the fact that yes, they will be going to India.

For the course of the next 3 weeks from then on, I went through a series of well calculated motions, in search of things that I missed out and in search of things that I want to do, I need to do and I wish to do. It turned out to be quite a soul searching experience, to gather a few thoughts...again, thanks to the time on hand. :)

I was finally able to get my act together and move on with my first IT certification ever (Yes, believe it!). I am finally a Sun Certified System Administrator now. These three weeks helped me bounce back and find my long lost Acad groove. We tend to get entangled so much into the corporate lifestyle that we tend to lose track of how well we can thrive with self-study etc. I've been a learn-at-the-job type guy for the most part, meaning anything that I would not use, I snooze on it :)

Apart from the crazy breezing of Volumes of Sun System Administration Manuals, I did get a chance to hang out, shoot some pool and actual go into NYC to meet Issac and Thy. The gracious couple were in NY for Stan's graduation week from CBS. Its been an amazing feeling to hang out with I and T. Just can't believe that Stan 'as graduated already... and infact is going on a road trip, moving for good to SFO !!

While in the city we ventured a couple of drinks at Joshua Tree and did a kretek too. Good to be back into the past for a few moments, especially recalling the glorious times we shared together in the past.

For the most part of first week, I was trying to fathom the sudden found independence. Between being swamped at work, cooking and checking out a few movies, It finally occurred to me how dearly I missed N and V. The rest of the time, was spent with the feeling that if I am deprived of their company, then I better put that time for a good cause ;-)

Nevertheless, it was time well spent to catch up with....well....me!

BITS Pilani @Hyderabad

Yep...thats exactly how it was mentioned in the news. "BITS Pilani Hyderabad" now thats a major syntax error. Wasn't it supposed to be called BITS Hyderabad? Oh well, mere mortals like our politicians would not understand that notion, I guess.

Anyways, there was an interesting statistic that was revealed in that Press Conference attended by our CM, YSR and BITS chairman. Apparently, 42% of students that attend BITS every year come from AP...now thats a mammoth number. Thanks to our Intermediate/12th class totals, getting a 900+ score out of 1000 is a pretty normal task to the students coming from various Residential colleges from AP. They are treated as if they were a cow heard. They wake up at 4:00 AM, to a whistle blown through the corridors of the resident halls, and are subject to the grind, that students from US or Europe cannot even think about. Approximately 13 hours of brutal imposing of knowledge in Science/Math. They are made ready for the outside world ! If the students flunk in EAMCET or IIT...their option is to go to...tada ! BITS Pilani !

And now, they dont need to go that far off traveling for 1.5 days to Pilani. Board the AP Express to reach Delhi, and then take a Bus to go Pilani...en route...the picturesque Rajasthan beckons! Barren desert lands, with bright red dust... the route takes you through, Rothak, Singhani, Biwani and finally Pilani !

Students now get a chance to deprive themselves of the glorious experiences @Pilani...they can now be at home and be a BITS grad. The new complex is proposed to built at some gifted site near Shameerpet. Yes, probably close to the lake...to make it green and cozy just like the tree-lined beautiful complex in Pilani. With peacocks running across the road, a fabulous Library and Saraswati Temple... those resident hostels named after the leaders of our nation....Pilani is hard to replicate anywhere, including the glorious Hyderabad, but am sure they will get there to a little extent atleast.

Thanks to Pavan (my cousin), I had the oppurtunity to see and experience Pilani for the most part, when we made a family visit to the campus. The stricking thing I remember was Rajasthani Biriyani served once a week, which was garnished with Cherries. Ofcourse, I could not make it to their signature fete...aptly named OASIS !

Nevertheless, BITS Hyderabad is truely a welcome message to the AP students. There is hardly anyone, who did not interface with a BITS alum, in their professional life. Thanks to the regiment and rigor of their curriculum, they definitely get the kids ready to attack their career paths with vigor and zeal.

Welcome to Hyderabad BITS !

Staying Alive in a Software Job

BPO and Outsourcing Effects

Bumped into this letter by someone depicting the real experiences that some software professionals face in India. Read along, but dont quote me. Quite an interesting article.

"Quote"
Written by Harshad Oak:
Before I started working for myself, I spent some years in some of the top IT companies in India and still have many friends working in various software companies.

I wrote a blow recruiting like crazy, about the same time last year about how Indian companies are recruiting like there's no tomorrow and the possible consequences. However I was avoiding writing this particular piece as it seems like an unpatriotic thing to do, to tell the world how bad the working conditions in software companies in India have become. And there's always the risk of excerpts being used out of context to bash up IT in India .


I am now writing this because I just keep hearing horror tales from the industry and it doesn't seem like anything is being done in the matter, so I thought I will do my bit and write.

First and foremost, before stereotypes about India kick in, I would like to clarify that I am not saying that Indian software companies are sweat shops where employees aren't being paid and made to work in cramped uncomfortable places. The pay in software companies is very good as compared to other industries in India and the work places are generally well furnished and plush offices India being a strong democracy, freedom of expression is alive and well and Indians are free to express their opinions and voice their concerns. Yet, I say that the software industry is exploiting its employees.

IT work culture in India is totally messed up and has now started harming the work culture of the nation as a whole. Working 12+ hours a day and 6 or even 7 days a week is more the rule than the exception.

Consequences:
*A majority of IT people suffer from health problems. As most of the IT workforce is still very young, the problem isn't very obvious today but it will hit with unbearable ferocity when these youngsters get to their
40s.

* Stress levels are unbelievable high. Stress management is a cover topic in magazines and newspapers and workshops on the subject are regularly overbooked.

* Most IT people have hardly any social / family life to talk of.

* As IT folk are rich by Indian standards, they try to buy their way out of their troubles and have incurred huge debts by buying expensive houses, gizmos and fancy cars.

Plush offices, fat salaries and latest gizmos can give you happiness only if you have a life in the first place.

The reason I feel this culture has emerged, is the servile attitude of the companies. Here's a tip for any company in the west planning to outsource to India. If you feel that a project can be completed in 6 weeks by 4 people, always demand that it be completed in 2 weeks by 3 people.

Guess what, most Indian companies will agree. The project will then be hyped up as an "extremely critical" one and the 3 unfortunate souls allocated to it will get very close to meeting the almighty by the time
they deliver the project in 2 weeks. Surprisingly, they will deliver in 2-3 weeks, get bashed up for any delays and the company will soon boast about how they deliver good quality in reasonable time and cost. Has anyone in India ever worked on a project that wasn't "extremely critical"?

I was once at a session where a top boss of one of India's biggest IT firms was asked a question about what was so special about their company and his answer was that we are the "Yes" people with the "We Can Do It" attitude. It is all very well for the top boss to say "We Can Do It "... What about the project teams who wish to say "Please....We Can't Do It" to the unreasonable timelines... I was tempted to ask "What death benefits does your company offer to the teams that get killed in the process?". I sure was ashamed to see that a fellow Indian was openly boasting about the fact that he and his company had no backbone. The art of saying No or negotiating reasonable time frames for the team is very conspicuous by its absence. Outsourcing customers more often than not simply walk all over Indian software companies. The outsourcer surely cannot be blamed as it is right for him to demand good quality in the least cost and time.

Exhaustion = Zero Innovation

* How many Indians in India are thought leaders in their software segment? - Very few
* How much software innovation happens in India? - Minimal
* Considering that thousands of Indians in India use Open Source software, how many actually contribute?-- Very few

Surprisingly, put the same Indian in a company "in" the US and he suddenly becomes innovative and a thought leader in his field. The reason is simple, the only thing an exhausted body and mind can do well,
is sleep.

I can pretty much bet on it that we will never see innovation from any of 10000+ person code factories in India.

If you are someone sitting in the US, UK ... and wondering why the employees can't stand up, that's the most interesting part of the story.

Read on...

The Problem

The software professional Indian is today making more money in a month than what his parents might have made in an year. Very often a 21 year old newbie software developer makes more money than his/her 55 year old father working in an old world business Most of these youngsters are well aware of this gap and so work under an impression that they are being paid an unreasonable amount of money. They naturally equate unreasonable money with unreasonable amount of work.

Another important factor is this whole bubble that an IT person lives in.. An IT professional walks with a halo around his or her head. They are the Cool, Rich Gen Next .. the Intelligentsia of the New World...
they travel all over the world, vacation at exotic locations abroad, talk "American", are more familiar of the geography of the USA than that of India and yes of course, they are the hottest things in the Wedding
Market!!!

This I feel is the core problem because if employees felt they were being exploited, things would change.
I speak about this to some of my friends and the answer is generally "Hey Harshad, what you say is correct and we sure are suffering, but why do you think we are being paid this much money? It's not for 40 hours
but for 80 hours a week. And anyway what choice do we have? It's the same everywhere."

So can we make things change? Is there a way to try and stop an entire generation of educated Indians from ending up with "no life".

Solutions

1) Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.

Recently, in an awards ceremony at a software company, the manager handing over the "employee of the month" award said something like "It's unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working".. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.

Companies need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the time difference between India and the west is the reason why people need to stay in office for 14 hours a day. Staying late should be a negative thing that should work against an employee in his appraisals. Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.

2) Estimates:

If time estimates go wrong, the company should be willing to take a hit and not force the employee to work crazy hours to bail projects out of trouble. This will ensure that the estimates made for the next project
are more real and not just what the customer has asked for.

3) Employee organizations / forums

NASSCOM (National Association for Software and Services Companies) and CSI (Computer Society Of India) are perhaps the only two well known software associations in India and both I feel have failed the software employee. I do not recall any action from these organizations to try and improve the working conditions of
software employees. This has to change.

I am not in favor of forming trade unions for software people, as trade unions in India have traditionally been more effective at ruining businesses and making employees inefficient than getting employees their
rights and helping business do well. So existing bodies like NASSCOM should create and popularize employee welfare cells at a state/regional level and these cells should work only for employee welfare and
not be puppets in the hands of the companies.

If the industry does not itself create proper forums for employee welfare, it's likely that the government / trade unions will interfere and mess up India 's sunshine industry.

4) Narayan Murthy, please stand up

Top bosses of companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc. need to send the message loud and clear to their company and to other companies listening at national IT events that employee welfare is really their top concern and having good working culture and conditions is a priority. Employee welfare here does not mean giving the employee the salary he/she dreams of.

Last word

I am sure some of my thoughts come from the fact that I too worked in such an environment for a few years and perhaps I haven't got over the frustrations I experienced back then. So think about my views with a
pinch of salt but do think about it.

--Harshad Oak
"Unquote"

Staggering spirits of International Cricket

Everyone who has been involved in tracking the debacle of Indian Cricket team and their recent ousting from the world cup, would surely attest to what a disappointment it was, for the world of Cricket.

While millions blame Greg Chappel our esteemed coach, with a reason list that will surely surpass an average list of registered number of voters in, say, New York... One can hardly find where is Rahul Dravid, and what explanation he could give on what transpired.

I mean we can lament relentlessly about our now famously infamous defeat to Bangladesh, who can truely pinpoint what went wrong?

What really went wrong, was actually something that was revolutionary to Indian Cricket. For the first time in decades, Indian Cricket had a coach, who was willing to bring some change, Do some experiments, change players and viewers' attitude. Yes, Greg Chappel took matter into his own hands, ever since he came in as a coach. From trying to make Irfan Pathan a all-rounder, to making the master-blaster Sachin come in middle order. And in return, what he gets is a lot of boo from cricket lovers around the world, and more importantly from the angry Blue-Billion !

While everyone is disappointed with India not even getting into the Big 8, au contraire, some were happy that Pakistan got knocked out too...! And before anyone could realize how Pakistan found their exit, Bob Woolmer met his fatal destiny. Inzy the "Sultan of Multan" retired from ODI cricket....what a terrible loss to the world of cricket.

While many cribbed and cried that India lost to Bangladesh, some resorted to solace when Bangladesh defeated South Africa by 67 runs. Thanks to Ashrafful for his contribution and a great job by Bangla bowlers. Maybe Bangladesh is not that bad a team to be defeated by...hey look they defeated South Africa, so they must be good ! They might have been in shadows, but they surely have emerged as a powerful bunch...this worldcup around.

Between Match Fixings, Death and Retirements offshore, Heart-attacks, and even Sachin coming out and giving explanations...the Spirits of Cricket fans across the world surely need a face-lift...this time around.

Again, just my thoughts and ramblings :)
Critiques and Comments surely welcomed.

And then, I joined the blogging community.

" Dude...you've got to check this out"
"Man...what are you doing? Its the latest sensation, you cant miss out"
"C 'mon now, get a blog going asap!"

Those were some that were whirled in my direction, each time one of my friends/colleagues/acquaintances told me regarding well - Blogging !

I've never been much a fan of a "write a dairy" syndrome. And although blogging originated from a similar idea, I can see it has matured into something much more, above and beyond.

Between my chaotic work schedule, my little one's activities, will try to keep my writings and sharing up to date. I promise ;-)