An evening at the UN headquarters

On a breezy Friday evening, i am back at the UN Headquarters on 41st Street,New York. This is my second attempt to get into the sacred place. The last one an unsuccessful attempt during my previous visit to New York in the summer of 2008 when i landed at the gate at 5 PM to be only told that the last visitor entry was at 4.45PM. Disappointed though,I had to be contented with a picture outside the building with the so recognizable UN headquarters in the background. UN as an institution has impressed me so much that during high school, i took part in every test they conducted on UN awareness and still cherish the experience and often look at the certificates i earned with a sense of pride. More recently i was disappointed when Shashi Tharoor lost out on the race for the top job.

The Headquarters of the United Nations is located along the East River in New York City. This 18-acre site is international territory and belongs to the Organization's 192 Member States.The United Nations has three additional, subsidiary, regional headquarters at Geneva ,Vienna and Nairobi. These adjunct offices help represent UN interests, facilitate diplomatic activities, and enjoy certain extraterritorial privileges, but only the main headquarters in New York contains the seats of the principal organs of the UN, including the General Assembly and Security Council. I was lucky this time to be on time to get a guided tour of the UN headquarters. The guided tour took us about an hour and half or so and mainly consisted of three parts - The Security council hall, The General Assembly and the hallway that houses unique and rare gifts to the United Nations by its member nations.Of the gifts displayed here are the expensive gifts by the South Asian countries and the one that stands out as unique is the AK47 remodelled into a guitar by the famous Columbian musician Cesar Lopez, the creation that is known as the Escopetarra - A creation that raised much needed awareness about gun related violence in many affected societies, now regarded as a symbol of peace.
The site of the United Nations Headquarters has extraterritoriality status which means the rules here override the laws of New York City, but it does not give immunity to those who commit crimes there :-)

The next stop was the majestic General assembly hall, this is a huge hall where representatives from all the member countries can be seated together and important issues that needs collective world's attention is discussed. The aura of this place is something that can certainly be felt here. There is a method to locate one's country seating in the 1800 seater hall. I tried but couldn't, the tour guide meanwhile told us that 'The General Assembly is not a world government - its resolutions are not legally binding upon Member States. However, through its recommendations it can focus world attention on important issues, generate international cooperation and, in some cases, its decisions can lead to legally binding treaties and conventions'.

The UN has its own postal system called the United Nations Postal Administration which issues stamps and cancellations. The basement of the visitors center has a UNPA post office from where postcards can be mailed throughout the world using the UN stamps. For a fee, once can have a customized stamp sheetlet with your photograph. See the 98¢ stamp of myself! truely thrilling for the philatelist in me (Ranjini, however differs and calls it self-glorification though).

By the time we came out of the UN complex, it was quite late in the evening and Ram, my colleague at IBM GBS and I walked back to the 33rd street Path station via 42nd street, the Indian high commisioner's office and then stopped in front of Macy's at Herald Square for some pictures of the holiday crowd before heading home fully soaked on the spirit of NYC, no surprises when they say I ♥ NYC

Urban Transportation

I am at the big apple these days on work and stay across the Hudson river in Jersey city and make the daily commute to New York City in probably one of the best urban transport systems that i have travelled. I use the PATH and the New York City Subway to get to work on Madison Avenue in mid town Manhattan and back to my hotel.The Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York with New Jersey, and providing service to Jersey City, Hoboken, Harrison, and Newark. It is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. While some PATH stations are adjacent to New York City Subway, Newark Light Rail, Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, and New Jersey Transit stations, there are no free transfers between these different, independently run transit systems; however, PATH does accept the same pay-per-ride MetroCard used by the New York City Subway. I am a big fan of using public transport and as i write this, i am curious and excited about the namma metro in Bangalore. Will the Bangalore metro some day be comparable to the ones in NYC,Paris,Zurich or any other European city. I have  traveled in quite a few on these public transport networks and one thing that has always amazed me about the public transport network in these countries is the fact that these systems were planned more than a hundred years ago and surprisingly, the systems are able to handle with ease today's traffic and volume. One probably didn't have the need to catch a 1:03 AM train to 33rd street those days. Alone as i am in the US, i spend the time on the commute thinking about this and the many other infrastructure marvels that makes an ordinary citizen's life so much easier and silently wish that we in India soon build it especially when our country faces mass exodus into our already burgeoning cities in search of the service employment. More on the tunneled train system,i will take the liberty calling the NYC subway and the PATH as the NY Metro. Most stations within the city are underground and especially in NYC, its almost a rathole of an entrance to the subway and surprisingly, the stations are well ventilated and upon a little research found out that the air supply is actually by the movement of trains in most places where the train acts as a piston inside the tunnel and pushes forward air as it races and at the same time "sucks-in" the air to the tunnel from the closest ventilation shaft behind it.

The town planners and the transportation authorities have done another thing worth mentioning here, interlinked different modes of transport to complement each other. This is very similar to what European countries have done as well. One ticket could enable you to travel in trains, buses, ferries and light rail trams. It is so convenient and simple things such as a turnstile not only keeps squatters away from the train stations, but helps to a large extent the problem of ticketing and inspecting whether people are actually travelling on tickets. Imagine a system like that in Bangalore where the Metro,BMTC,and Autos (why not! - a small swipe card that will deduct the fare in an auto) all get together and form an efficient transport and feeder network. That would really be good-bye to the trafic jams of the KR Puram types where i shudder to think the number of productive hours every productive person would have squandered while waiting for the crawling trafic to move.I will soon be back in my hometown and for sure be more disappointed initially about the sad state of traffic and eventually get over it since i guess, i will glad to be back home. Fortunately, my job gives me the chance to realize the dream of living an easy life in a developed country like the US,but, I am still helpless about getting that system and infrastructure back here..there are no easy answers but only questions and more questions - Costs ,will to build, laws, politicians, corruption...it could go on..

I have come to terms that Infrastructure is indeed a state of mind..experience it when(ever) it happens. 

Oktoberfest at Mysore

The last day of Navaratri is Vijayadashmi, anyone who has been associated with Mysore will agree how much of pride Mysoreans take in celebrating Dasara (Dushera) and playing gracious hosts to visitors from every corner of the globe. Dasara in Mysore is something worth being a part of and soaking in the cultural grandeur of the state sponsored celebrations. The streets are cleaned and swept (even otherwise, Mysore is the second cleanest city in the country), bright and colorful lights lining its small but historic streets. Old timers ruefully comparing Dasara of 'their' time with the present day celebrations. The key change in the last few decades being that of the King of Mysore being replaced by the portrait of godess Chamundeshwari on the howdah that the royal elephant carries. The king himself used to be paraded on Vijayadashmi day. The procession is almost always well attended with people thronging the street sides along the route. The 3-4 hour procession majestically culminates with a pooja at Bannimantap which is the abode of many Banni/Shami trees. This is followed  by a torch light parade by the forces and then some breathtaking fireworks adoring the dark october sky. At home, Dasara meant a display of all the dolls in the traditional Mysore way usually based on themes (Ramayana, Dashavatar,cricket match, Rajasthani and Gujarati dolls)

The Dasara celebrations ,the Mysore way is now 400 years old but to many of us the legacy is still young and hopefully will never grow old. Its the one time of the year when every Mysorean is excited automatically, something like a part of your life which grows with you and the spirit increases every year. 30+ years later, i am not bored of it. As kids, Dasara in Mysore meant gearing up for the various celebrations and events that are held in the city.And if you were a little well connected to the city administration,police,horticulture department through friends,relatives and neighbors and et al meant that free passes and some even with multiple entries! to the various events. The most popular events were the exhibition, flower show,VIP enclosure in and around the palace gates to watch the Jambu-Savari(elephant procession),Wrestling competition,flower show, Torch Light parade. I don't even remember if commercial tickets were even sold as one family pass in the neighborhood meant there was every possibility of availing it on a particular day by roster- I haven't seen such neighborhood camaraderie after i left Mysore. The much awaited Dasara exhibition was Mysore's only window to consumeristic opulence and fathers saved and planned for a day of impulsive spending. Today there are bigger and better consumer fairs and of course the ever so-convenient malls, but a visit to the traditional exhibition only completed the Dasara experience for the year. A ride on the giant wheel(and later tora toraa), the Delhi happaLa (papad), cotton candy,churmuri,mensinkai bajjis,10 packets of popcorn for anywhere between 10 and 5 rupees depending on the time of the day, and definitely the 'toy of the year'-usually a small and innovative contraption involving no more than a rubber band and a few pieces of plastic (boy! we loved them didn't we). There was always something for the ladies as well, a trinket, newer designs of imitation jewelry, handlooms from Tiruppur and Rajasthan and then the wonder machines that could chop vegetables,peel onions without a tear,knead dough, mop floors, soap savers,tap attachments and the crowd outside these stalls were something that would baffle any market strategist. The days are usually hot and sweaty during this time of the year and the evenings even more uncertain with the rain clouds looming over the horizon. But the lighting in the city during Dasara really drew my attention and soars the spirits. Every street in the city is decorated with light. Millions of bulbs glow to make the dark night in the city colorful and beautiful. The Palace and the surroundings are a sight that would remain etched in the mind for a long time.


Many years later with my daughter in tow, the festivities during Dasara continues to amaze us and i can see the same sparkle in my daughter's eyes that my parents saw in ours and encouraged us to spend and allowed us to give the school regimen a small break..wasn't it Dasara afterall? our very own oktoberfest !!
if you care for some trivia here, my first scaled down model car that i ever owned was (a red Lancia hatchback made in Hong Kong) was bought at the dasara exhibition circa 1986 -thanks to my doting parents, for an astonomical 8 or 10 rupees and it still has its place of pride in the display area in my living room)

And, finally a piece of advice, Don't bother clicking pictures during Dasara,enjoy the moment and the stay and just come back again next year and relive it again. It keeps getting better every year!

Internet Explorer 9

Microsoft announced on September 15th the beta availability of Internet Explorer browser. IE 9.0 has supposedly everything a browser did not have all these years - support all CSS 3 selectors, border-radius CSS 3 property, improved JavaScript performance, and embedded ICC v2 or v4 color profiles support via Windows Color System. It also features hardware-accelerated graphics rendering using Direct2D, hardware accelerated text rendering using DirectWrite, hardware accelerated video rendering using Media Foundation, imaging support provided by Windows Imaging Component, and high fidelity printing powered by the XPS print pipeline.IE 9 is available in both 32 and 64 bit versions and was initially thought to be OS agnostic.


The catch however is that IE 9 works only with Windows 7 or Windows Vista SP2 (with Platform Update and IE8) Windows XP is not supported and most of us are on Win XP SP3 and we all know how successful Vista is. Surely some typical Microsoft strategy at work here Huh..

Risk (a)version!

I have spent the last decade and beyond  developing, testing and overseeing the release of multiple versions of many software products on multiple technology stacks and seeing it succeed though its planned shelf life and lifecycle. This also came with an inherent self assurance that the next version of the software would be better than the current one and would solve all our (clients) problems. In those days, heroes were tagged to different releases. I even have a certificate at home from one of my past employer proclaiming me as one of the stars of the v2005 and v2006 releases! A close friend recently and quite suddenly asked me which version of facebook was i using. This question of his left me stumped but moments later sounded a wee bit rhetorical - did facebook ever had versioning?


I soon realized that it was not just facebook, most products from Google did not have versioning. The old order seemed to have changed suddenly. Developing and selling software through versioning with the accompanying hype and timed big bang releases is actually disappearing fast. Its being replaced by a method where the software actually resides on the internet or the cloud and is continuously updated as a result of which the user has the latest and greatest version or simply the current version! Unlike the older model of spending years adding new features to the products and then spending whatever dollars to advertise market and convince existing customers to upgrade or new ones to purchase. If you added up the maintenance hours and the costs associated with "supporting" older products all the while cramming newer features out of fear of losing out on features - isn't this software bloat? I also think this is a 'vicious' reinforcing loop that one gets into while the software becomes more complex and expensive to build over time and more complex to use. And are my users using more and newer features of the complex software i delivered? Probably not, a good ERP user needs to use about 20% of the features the best of the breed ERP vendor offers today!! ( you may question the 20% - but from my experience, i am convinced that it is pretty close). And, how many times have we seen anything ‘frozen’? But the time a new version of the product was ready for a release, many of the features would have been outdated while many more would be missing since the customer and his needs also evolved during the product development cycle.

I recently was introduced to a different revenue model in product software wherein the company wasn't charging a one time license fee but a monthly subscription or a rental fee. The best part of this model was subscribers also have the rights to the future enhancements. I am sure the revenue model and the transparency it brings drives these companies to constantly innovate. This would not only keep the maintenance revenues flowing, but also ensure better software quality. Product development finally seems to be heading the Agile/Rapid App development (RAD) model versus the traditional waterfall model. The new model would not only give the time to understand customer needs but also lets you build small incremental features and also,ofcourse- discard things that don't work. And who drives it - Product development is no longer marketing led development but engineering led.

Does this make life easier? at least you don't probably don't have to estimate for features ahead of time and sometimes these features may not even make it to the version. Just let the folks develop smaller pieces of code and publish it on the internet or cloud for your real users to ratify, They are your real 'user' group and who isn't happy without any productivity loss?

So is RAD effective? For one, it reduces the development time and reusability of components help to speed up development. All functions are modularized so it is easy to work with. The only expectation for large enterprise level products would be extreme commitment by the end customer and developer to complete the product in a fixed and an abbreviated time range.

The good break diary …

31st August 2010


For the past few weeks, it has been a very emotional time for me as I bid farewell to my dear colleagues and friends of the past 7+ years at manhattan Associates. I woke up today to realize i didn't have to be at the bus stop in time for the office cab. I also signed up for an Ayurvedic detoxification plan to flush away all the toxic remnants of the loving farewell lunches and dinners from the past weeks. The Panchakarma therapy lasted 10 days at the comfort environs of Parampara Ayurvedic center at Sadashivanagar under the watchful eye of Ranjini, my wife and a physician herself. During the next 10 days, there is nothing much to look forward to, other than a regimented life with the work life being uncharacteristically calm.

1st September
Almost midweek and after a long time, Wednesday looks calms and I am already missing the numerous meetings scheduled for Wednesday. The idleness bout already seems to have taken over me and my idle mind is now meandering and throwing posers- do i really need to do something around the house in order to keep myself busy? Cleaning, organizing stuff, run errands for the family, revisit my investment portfolio. Thinking of investments, I call up Nagaraj BG and BLN Swamy, my trusted friends and advisors in the moneyed world. Life would have been much more prosperous if only I had acted on their timely advice. As always, they had fantastic news for me-if only I was ready to act upon..Buying and selling stocks on advice will perilously bring me closer to being a trader -certainly not something I started with (Mr Buffet - still with you). I also don’t have the wherewithal to become one; I believe it is too tedious to track markets on an hourly basis and have brokers on speed dial. As many have said it before, just be long term and the markets will take care of the rest...

2nd September
One of the other things that i am doing these days is reading up a lot since i can afford the entire day reading books. The detoxification therapy comes with a statutory warning of no-sleeping during the day and that again helps the reading cause. I have been reading Michael Lewis' Money Poker, A compilation of clichés by Christine Ammer, The fish omnibus , re-reads of Dave Barry to keep myself in some good humor and the bed time read for the next few nights will be 'What got you here Won't get you there' by Marshall Goldsmith. With all these reading, i haven’t become any more of a geek, but the exercise has proved worth the effort and offered some solutions and solace to the restlessness caused by a few days of inaction. I suddenly remember ‘Winnie the pooh’ here, who famously said - Never underestimate the value of doing nothing. Stock market gurus actually sometimes prescribe doing nothing.. As it demonstrates patience, perseverance and even conviction. While still at investing, doing nothing helps investors like me restrain from making unnecessary wrong moves and even more unnecessarily churn portfolios enduring pain while hoping for some gain. The question that refuses to go away easily now is how long will I do nothing?

3rd September
I had at least something to look forward today. Thanks to facebook, i got in touch with a buddy from school, Vijay Iyengar who was visiting India. We had promised to meet at a hotel in Malleshwaram after exactly 18 years. Vijay had left the country 18 summers ago to pursue education in Moscow. Subsequently, he moved to the United States along with his wife and lives in NJ. Vijay works with thought leaders from the medical world and represents his company Sanofi Aventis quite well in getting these thought leaders speak for the drugs and molecules that his company develops. The reunion was fun, full of nostalgia and helped me spend the day relatively easily. It took some convincing from me to assure Vijay that the decision to stay back in India was well thought of and work can be as challenging as it can be anywhere else. Fortunately, i had Manhattan Associates and IBM as examples to show how well the captive center and the off shoring model worked. I am due to join IBM in about 5 days and actually a bit nervous about how the big blue works given its scale. After a long time, Friday didn’t seem like a weekend and strangely enough, I am now looking forward to 8th Sept, Wednesday when I formally join IBM..

4th September
The day began lazily with a late brunch for all at home except me. There were a few chores to be attended to. A lure of a clean deal in a residential plot took me near the new international airport to check out a residential plot in a gated community. As in the past, this one too looked uncertain in terms of appreciation and valuations that I had to 'do nothing' about it. Before getting further frustrated, i decided to analyze the current status of my portfolio. It did show a steady net gain with the best performer in my kitty being Rallis India while Tata steel continues to be one of the bigger drags. Warren Buffet and Benjamin Graham's experience and wisdom tells me not to be disheartened. So, again I delve into some research reports with the hope of predicting it right, but no more for some time. I decide to again 'do nothing' and simply allow these companies the time to grow.

5th September
My detox therapy is going well, but I am now missing my coffee so much. I feel light but not weak, the day is spent with the family and those who know me praise me for the discipline while following a strict diet-but the doctor (my wife) isn't - she actually wanted me to follow the regime for 3 weeks for the most effective treatment and to gain maximum benefit. Sunday also meant, I get access to the internet using Ranjini's computer. Being between jobs has made me digitally disconnected with fewer email replies, facebook and twitter updates. But i still needed to be connected as my communication with IBM, my new employer is through web mail.

6th September
The markets open and the world goes back to the working mode once again on a Monday morning, my therapy has now reached final stage. It’s now a luxurious 75 mins at the spa in the mornings making it something to look forward to, not to mention the rejuvenated feel during the day. Diet is still the same. I also began preparing for my new job beginning in two days. Getting the necessary paper work, pre employment forms, photocopying, getting photographed for the various forms and identification needs were some of the distractive things I did today. The stock markets meanwhile are on a surge ready to break the 19000 barrier. My neighbor who is a portfolio manager looks elated vetted some of my investment decisons.There are more buy recommendations coming in from almost everywhere and from everyone, but the percentage of Indians who believe they can create wealth in the markets is still a dismal number-so much to speak about awareness and risk appetite. I used this good peak in the Sensex to redeem some of my mutual funds for some tidy appreciation.

7th September
Began the day with the last visit to the therapy center and came home and began browsing through the info way to find as much as I could about IBM, the history, break-up of the business, spoke to my Royal Blue Ambassador about the joining formalities. The afternoon was spent navigating the IBM website for pre-joining requisites that I was expected to be aware of. IBM being so huge cannot operate without processes and policies. I was soon to discover how scale can be managed and managed effectively and what a chaotic place IBM would have been without these processes and policies in place.

8th September - early morning..
I now get into active work life which also means this diary would also end and it would be sometime before I come back with more blogs. For now, the immediate learning is to make newer friends, learn to navigate the big blue maze and set up an office and get back to the working ways. I will try to continue to keep an eye on the fate of my portfolio and hopefully, will be able to share some details and i hope there will be a few more zeroes in the net profit.

The anatomy of a goodbye

This week has been a very memorable one filled with a lot of nostalgia. The beginning of the week was the last day at work for me at Manhattan Associates, a place where I have spent the last 2675 days or 7 years, 3 Months and 26 days to be precise and clocked in more than a 100,000 kilometers on the commute using the office cab and developed many a friendships, skills for life, fair degree of prosperity in life not to mention the satisfaction of having achieved a lot professionally. While this has been a very satisfying stint for me personally for having got numerous opportunities to work with the best minds and customers in the supply chain management space and equips me for my next job, it also left me a little bleary eyed to part and say goodbye to so many wonderful friends and colleagues across the globe with who many a milestones were together achieved, successes celebrated and setbacks re strategized. The innumerable product releases, travel to customer locations, satisfying our internal clients, managing people, working on quality initiatives, traveling to campuses (NITs,IITs, local colleges) to meet the most enthusiastic and brilliant minds trying to lure them into joining us has best defined my years at Manhattan Associates. This again re emphasizes the fact that when people with a good skill set and even better attitude get together - Success is just another flagged cell on the on the MPP. As manager of fairly large teams, I have in the past replied passionately to goodbye emails and on odd occasions a nonchalant 'Thanks, Good Luck' also, to anyone who has sent me their farewell email. However, it was only last Friday that I realized that a lot of emotions go into writing one and however hard I tried to make it humorous, it ended up in a pathetically polite note (those who received mine will agree). Some recent ones that came into my inbox had plenty of humor in them - One of them likened his journey in the company to the tossed around and reincarnated Dude (call him AsokJoecool if you have to give him a name) while another one almost said where she wasn't going next and yet another one writing a scroll of honor of all and sundry who had helped him in his brief career so far.


While I did not really take long to compose my email, answering a few direct questions wasn't something I was prepared for and the toughest one amongst that was the 'What went wrong that you are leaving'. It took some composure before i said "well, actually nothing" as mine was more of a Just about time move to a larger organization where I hopefully get to learn more and enjoy as I have at Manhattan Associates for all these years.

To, the Ol' gang at MA - Bangalore & Atlanta, I am surely going to miss you - thanks for nurturing me and providing me the fish during the time i was learning to cast...

An Independent nation's predicament

With the usual dilemma of how to celebrate Independence Day, I stepped out of home this morning with my daughter in tow -her only incentive being the éclair that usually is the flag hoisting sweet that my apartment’s residents society distributes on Independence day. The event itself did not begin before multiple announcements on the public address system goading the citizenry to come down. Many agonizing minutes later the flag was hoisted followed by the patriotic singing of the national anthem which most of the folks from the generation after mine could barely sing. The oldest gentleman in our society delivered a very energetic but nostalgic speech glorifying the achievements the nation had managed in these 63 years.

I often wonder about the nation’s journey and importantly the whole Idea of India and its multiple predicaments. It is generally believed that the people get a nation that they deserve and also the vice versa. While I agree with the probably septaugenarian gentleman this morning who proudly listed all the great achievements in various fields viz science, technology, medicine, economics, education etc. I have never been convinced that freedom actually brought societal stability or affluence. We are still as heterogeneous as a nation, cynical as a society than probably most of the 120 countries that became independent from some sort of colonial domination between 1947 and 1962. Some of these countries tried to make such changes too quickly and the process to introduce affluence, order while still trying to maintain the new found freedom and ended up in one party rule, neo-colonial domination, dictatorship or plain anarchy (You can see it all in the neighborhood). I am proud when it comes to India having managed to retain its democratic framework while silently triggering off revolutions in economic development and prosperity. Critics may argue that this is a pittance when compared to where we should have been in the 60+ years. Back in school, we were taught that India survives on two virtues –democracy and pluralism. Interestingly both of these ideas consummate the strength of my country and also challenge it so much (all the bandhs, free speech and the freedom of the press). The beauty of this nation is that we are pluralist and not monist. Our founding fathers had never thought about achieving a nationhood by flattening religions, linguistic variety and cultural differences, but by harmonizing them and building on them. Sometimes, it does seem that the ideological difference is bigger than national pride. But in the end, I am confident that my country will emerge stronger and elements on the fringe will realize the rational and see the value of growing with this great nation. A nation where as simple as a game of Cricket can be the binding force which can bestow a distinct Indian character to nationalism.

While the celebrations end as the flag is lowered in the evening, thoughts race as the nation prepares for another week of nation building. Does anyone remember anything more than what has to be done on a Monday morning? Isn’t it a question of existence after all? Life has to continue and thank god-it is a Monday again!

An incredible nation, my lovely motherland full of vibrant cultural heritage and spiritual mysticism - what more can i say but ' I ♥ India '

The ageless prince and his digital weaponry

During my school days in the late 80s and early 90s, when we were old enough to be fascinated by computers, the IBM desktop PCs were considered a sign of technological arrival. These were super machines that could be used to silently type and save typed content as 'files' in addition to compute fairly complex calculations. Losing your files on a shared computer meant the worst - usually someone's conspiracy or ignorance. Unmonitored availability of the desktop meant playing DOS games - what a rage they were Prince of Persia, Mario Bros, Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego!, asteroids, centipede and Roadrash. In all, laying your hands on one these games meant premium screen time those days. The other way to play those games would be on hand-held consoles from Nintendo, Atari, Game Boy, Sega and Sony's Pocket Station. These would be mostly be available to a lucky few in school who had that visiting Uncle or Cousin picking it up for them or the really passionate ones would hunt one down in the gray markets of Madras, Bombay or sometimes in Bangalore. Gaming has never looked dull since then with so many of the kids from my generation onwards taking up video and later computer gaming seriously at the cost of real physical sport. This is so much more rampant in the west- I have seen a Play Station or a Nintendo/Wii or an X Box 360 in most homes of friends and colleagues from work that i have visited in the US. A few of them even insisting that a Wii should be a definite carry-back gift from the states especially the one that promises fitness through movement simulated sports/exercises. Gaming has surely evolved from the arrow key movements to help Mario jump trenches and the familiar key navigation to enable the prince leap over chasms, jump through fires, avoid beds of knives and almost impossibly save the princes before the evil vizier could finish her off. A friend's son recently reviewed the new version of the game much to my ignorant amusement. The new version of Prince of Persia is now completely loaded with 3-D graphics, loaded avatars with the Prince battling the evil with his all powerful digital weaponry. Multiple versions and generation of millions of gamers later, Prince of Persia is now a Disney movie starring Gemma Arterton and Jake Gyllenhaal. Meanwhile, being in the software industry for a decade plus now, one of the challenges of application software remains multiplatform support. Gaming has since become a billion dollar industry with more and more of puzzle solving challenges that require agile manipulation of objects - and, not to mention Kids' reflexes being so much better these days. As in software application development, Gaming too has found its challenge in multiplatform support - if you have heard of XBox 380, Nintendo/Wii and Sony's Playstations...

Yes Chief - you are in command.

It had never occurred to me what titles could do to the human psyche until a couple of years ago when I noticed the lapel on the Subway sandwich maker’s shirt in Alabama emblazoned with the phrase ‘sandwich artist’ which left me baffled. A few summers later, I still wonder if the sandwich artist made sandwiches any better. The 6 inch veggie sandwich, staple and simple remains my all time favorite at Subway and has been my savior many an occasion when there simply wasn’t a choice for vegans like me. Over the years, one thing I have noticed while meeting people at work, interviewing candidates for my company, vendors, partners is the pride they carry flaunting titles. When it comes to job titles, we live in an age of rampant inflation. Everyone you come across is a chief or a president or a director of some variety not to mention the few grand prefixes such as ‘global’, ’interface’ and customer, and hey presto


While some of these titles add color and dignity to the task itself, I believe there is a lot of motivation for people to be called a ‘specialist’. A growing number of companies have a chief for everything from knowledge to diversity. This was certainly turning out to be so interesting that I decided to spend some time researching on it and what I discovered left me amused if not shocked. Fathom this- Southwest airlines have a chief twitter officer while Coca-Cola and Marriott have chief blogging officers (these must be the easiest of the CXO league-or is it!) Kodak must surely be the trendsetter-they even have a chief listening officer (had heard of agony aunts!). Some more that I found from America’s International Association of Administrative professionals ‘ defined umbrella of job titles were paper boys can be called as ‘media distribution officers’, Binmen are ‘recycling officers’ and ‘lavatory cleaners are ‘sanitation consultants’. Even the linguistically pure French are not behind, the cleaning ladies are called ‘techniciennes de surface’ (surface technicians). I am not sure what is the rationale behind such titles, one obvious and probably a structural reason could be the growing complexity of businesses. You now need a VP for a product and also for a geography and end up with something like Vice President for Espresso vender –Asia Pacific !

The cult of flexibility is also the fact that inflationary and flat hierarchies have the paradoxical effect of multiple meaningless job titles. A feeling of ascending the ranks (although illusionary) is what the human psyche craves for. The technology industry has been the forerunner in introducing all sorts of new fangled job titles. The IT types like me and others continue to dub ourselves as gurus, scrum master s and the hottest one these days is the ninja. Meanwhile, I need to get to bed early and be ready for that 10 AM meeting with my ‘automation specialist’ to resolve that nagging issue with automating pdf reports. Over the years, I have been called a subject matter expert, outbound specialist, ‘manual tester’, ’automation engineer’, 'DB tester' and with all the experience and a few gray hairs and ofcourse the tester’s holy grail in hand – Am I a test evangelist yet? Or does it even matter!

How the Cow jumped over the moon: a fable on futures and perceived valuation

(this is from a forwarded email - something i think worth sharing)
One day Farmer Abner took his Appaloosa (a fine breed of horse and so are Belgian and Clydesdale) to the livestock market. There he met Farmer Bill with his Belgian and Farmer Clem with his Clydesdale. "What do you reckon they're worth?" each one asked the others. "The value of a thing is what the thing will bring," they agreed.
Abner offered his horse for sale first. The auction opened at $100, but to Abner's surprise and great joy, Bill and Clem entered into a spirited bidding competition for the Appaloosa, finally won by Bill. Abner pocketed $500,less the auctioneer's fee.
Next, Bill put his Belgian up for sale. Abner, who was now without a horse of his own, bid fiercely against Clem, but eventually quit at $500. Bill accepted the money gleefully minus the commission, of course.
Finally, Clem's Clydesdale went on the block. This time Abner outbid Bill and took delivery of the Clydesdale for the same price as the others, $500.
The Cow-Bones index, the dosimeter of the livestock market, was at 500.
That meant that the equity value of their holdings was $500. Since they had done so well, all three went back to the market again the next day, eager to see if they could pick up some bargains or unload their new purchases at a profit. The auctioneer started the bidding at $500. Bill and Clem bid desperately against one another for Abner's Clydesdale; once again, Bill won, but this time at the mind-boggling price of $3000. Then Bill put the Appaloosa up for sale. Abner and Clem bid equally fiercely before the latter triumphed; he too had to go to $3000 to secure his victory. In order to cover the loan he took out to raise the purchase price, he decided to sell his other horse. The bidding between Abner and Bill shot up to the $3000 level before Bill dropped out, leaving the Belgian in Abner's hands. Of course, the auctioneer again deducted his fees, but Abner, Bill, and Clem were overjoyed at their success. They were twenty times wealthier than when they started, at least on paper.
And the Cow stood at 3000.
On the third day, optimistic that the market would continue to rise, the three farmers (though they now thought of themselves as investors who farmed as a hobby) again entered the fray. The bidding was insane; pundits who followed the market had never seen anything like it. When the dust settled, Abner had repurchased the Appaloosa, Bill the Belgian, and Clem the Clydesdale--in each case for the unheard-of, astounding price of $14,000! None of them could believe his luck. Each went around saying, "It's a dream, I never believed that wealth on this scale could be mine." The auctioneer was very satisfied too.
And the Cow jumped over the moon. It ended the day at 14,000.

Moral: The Market will decide.

Epilog:
The next day the market was closed, so Abner, Bill, and Clem went back to their farms, leading their horses on halters rather than riding. "You don't want to take chances with a 14,000-dollar investment," they said.
On the way they met Farmer Zeke, who was riding a bicycle. They told him of their new wealth, understandably proud of the acumen that had earned it, and they bragged a little. "Have you ever before in your life seen a horse worth $14,000?" they asked Zeke.

"Fourteen thousand? Why, I wouldn't give you a hundred dollars for those plugs," exclaimed Zeke. "If they were good for anything at all you wouldn't be walking."

Penguins, Pelicans and Vikings

It would have been a lazy siesta at my balcony on a Sunday afternoon if not for reading a Malcolm Gladwell that I picked up at the annual Strand book festival (SBF) this morning, The day suddenly seems to have brightened and the soul feels refreshed after the visit to the book festival, especially when yesterday was a working day to compensate for the lost day last week due to the Bandh.My thoughts go back to the mid nineties when i lived in Bombay. It was almost a pilgrimage i made to either Bajaj Bhavan at Nariman Point or the Sunderbai Hall just outside of Churchgate to be greeted by a thick,fresh but familiar smell of the paperbacks that beckoned an impulsive splurge on books at the Strand Festival. Luckily years later, but absolutely with the same zest, The Stand book festival has kicked off to popular reception at Bangalore (Thanks Ms Vidya Virkar). Strand Book Shop was always known to offer great discounts on books. A couple of things other than the fat discount that has left me amazed is the horizontal arrangement of books for display - So one doesn’t have to strain his neck to read the title from the spine of the book. It is hard to find books of your choice in the SBF since the collection is huge and eclectic with a wide range of fiction, classics, children, business and self-help books. My recommendation is to go there with an open mind and a flexible budget to do justice to the numerous titles that are available and not to mention the coffee table books (if you are into it- I simply love them and two favorites i could remember were the Reader's Digest's book on the US interstate highways and another one to commemorate the Everest expedition complete with breathtaking photographs). They stock from every major publishing house – McGraw Hill, Penguin, Pelican, Bantam, Viking, Sterling, Allen Lane. Rupa, Harper Collins..You name it and they have it


My inclination to buy non-fiction has been the simple fact that I think learnings from these books can lend much to life, career and aid general thought and daily conversation. Which is why books like Adventure Capitalist, Tipping Point, Freakonomics, The World is Flat, and Outliers are such absolute must haves on your bookshelf. I cannot imagine discussing The Kite Runner or The White Tiger or Chetan Bhagat for more than 10 minutes! I can rave about them, listen to someone talking about it and nod, but that's pretty much about it.

Coming back to Strand, Today, on a Sunday morning, I was disappointed to see very few youngsters at the Festival. Most of the visitors were in the age group of 35+ and that included a lot of people in the 45+ range. My fears of kids not reading enough and parents not insisting that they do is now almost confirmed. I have always bought books for myself and to gift to close friends and colleagues at work and as for me, I am eternally thankful to TN Shanbhag & his team for introducing me to the likes of Dave Barry, Jim Rogers,Rohington Mistry,Nicolas Taleb,William Dalrymple, Ruskin Bond (for the second time) and many others.. and Aesop fables,Charles Dickens and Andersen Tales to my daughter in an age when most of her peers are reading and listening to Barbie princess. I am now as eclectic as the collection in their store and look forward to enjoying the company of a dozen books that i have chosen to read in the next few weeks – each one with a cup of freshly brewed filter coffee in hand and the lovely July weather to savor.

...till then...happy reading

A new champion

Whenever a 700 million people sit glued to their TV screens for 120 minutes, it might well be an important event. Over the past month TV audiences have been following the FIFA world cup football more keenly that the stock market with every anticipatory belief that a new team would finally kiss the trophy and eventually it happened so with the pre-tournament favorites Spain beating the 3 time finalists Holland. For the Dutch though, this was another missed opportunity to get to the platinum league, but then they were truly the worthy opponents the Spaniards would cherish for making this world cup finals so special. Finally 9 Yellow cards later and by Paul's grace (Paul the prophesying octopus who shot to predictive glory picking the winners right all the time thus becoming a business enabler. The blokes at Ladbrokes and other betting houses must next be strategizing as to how to get Paul work for them) The Spanish Armada, meanwhile sets sail back home with the booty leaving most of us like me bleary eyed but amazed at this game and the pompous occasion the past month was...Truly the game was a winner and as Shakira croons, Waka Waka- This time for Africa, hosting the most important sporting event on the planet must have done plenty good for the wonderful people and the nations associated. When bidding ended in 2004 and South Africa was chosen over Egypt and Morocco, few had thought that South Africa would be such gracious hosts, providing world class infrastructure to complement the high expectations and global attention this event attracts and deserves. The best part about the FIFA world cup is not about winning the cup itself but the milestones that each football playing nation aims at. For some teams, a qualification into the elite league of 32 is a feat that signifies achievement and for some it is more than that. Celebrations, Joy, glory, pain, disappointment and outpour of emotions is probably what makes this game and event such great glue that humanity thrives on (at least in a large part of the world). There are nations that take victory and defeat beyond the fringes of rational justification. Brazil is known to declare a holiday when the team wins or a day of mourning when they don't. The Nigerian team's suspension followed by hasty revoking of the same due to public outcry and FIFA's intervention are examples of sheer passion that people have for this great game.


Spain with their brand of 'beautiful football can be winning football' lay their hands on Football's holy Grail and crown themselves as the new champion in a final that was, for the first time different from the past 80 years where one of the big four (Italy, Brazil, Germany or Argentina) were not a part of the grand finale. While, I know I will struggle hard this morning focusing on work with a 2 hour sleep, the excitement of seeing a new champion and the euphoria around the world should keep me going.

And for the Dutch, The two F-16 jets one of them painted ‘Oranje’ for the occasion escort their plane home for a tumultuous welcome - What a victory for the game, the nation, the continent and importantly the victory of the human spirit. Viva Football!

Sorry Maradona and Happy Birthday America

As i write this blog, I am a bit dejected at the German drubbing of the Argentine team in the 2010 FIFA world cup and kind of feel sorry for Diego Maradona whose passion and sideline antics, if not anything else should have put Argentina in the finals. As i wait to see the fate of Spain who seem equally determined to strike out another latino team off contention. I am surfing for some cheerful news as thoughts about America celebrating the 234th independence in a few hours is on the mental radar. I am reading Trent Hamm's tweets on twitter while another stream that i follow - Fortune magazine's 100 great things about America catches my attention. You can actually  read it on the fortune website..but thought will compile the entire list of 100 great things about America (not that i agree with the compilation completely), but atleast hilarious enough to keep me up through the next 60 minutes while i wait for the atomosphere at Ellis Park Stadium, Jo'berg to charge and for the kick-off whistle...

Till then...enjoy the list and Happy Independence Day and Happy Birthday, America!

1776 -2010... a fantastic journey...

Fortune's 100 Great things about America

1. The Internet -Oh yes, invented in the USA -- maybe Al Gore helped.

2. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights

3. Baseball -America's pastime…steroids or not

4. Mount Rushmore - Home of the original "your face here" gimmick

5. Food in New Orleans - If you can remember it the next morning

6. Rock and roll - Find a Beatles or Stones song uninfluenced by American music. Just try.

7. Hawaii - Mauna Kea, Kaua'i…you gotta see it to believe it.

8. iPod, iPad, and everything Apple

9. Barbecue - Carolina, Mississippi, K.C., Memphis…it's all good.

10. Ford Mustang - Who needs a German car? We'll take the classic.

11. Wikipedia - This article that mentions a popular fact site is a stub. You can help us by expanding it.

12. Buffalo - Because this is a real sentence: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. Don't believe us? Check on #11.

13. Slam dunks - Thanks to Doctor J

14. Broadway - If the Lion King ever closes, Cats will come back.

15. Bluebirds - Listen to mine sing

16. Google - Because no one stands up to China better

17. Mark Twain - The original American bad-ass

18. The national anthem

19. Iced drinks - When will the rest of the world figure this out?

20. Beaches - Cape Cod, Kiawah, Zuma -- ours are better.

21. Madison Square Garden - A little threadbare but still the biggest stage in America's biggest city

22. Delivery pizza

23. The Grateful Dead - Long may the followers of Uncle John's Band live on.

24. YouTube - We keep clicking on home videos even after Charlie bit our finger -- again!

25. The Super Bowl - The parties, the ads -- oh and a sports game, too

26. Fishing - China rules the commercial catch, but more people fish for fun here than anywhere else.

27. Monopoly - game we sometimes play in real life, too.

28. The Big Apple Circus - Where joy and, occasionally, fear comes in clown twelve-packs by tiny car

29. M&M's - Imitators don't stand a chance

30. Facebook - Friend us? Just kidding… but seriously. Please friend us.

31. Thanksgiving - Loosen your belt and watch the parade

32. Pickup trucks - Our nation's first outlet for unfunny bumper stickers

33. The Simpsons - May Bart and Lisa never make it to high school.

34. Oprah Winfrey - But after 2011, no more free cars for the audience

35. Frisbees - Not just for dogs

36. Mad Men - Jon Hamm + Christina Hendricks = cooler than the actual '60s

37. New York/Boston sports rivalry - For our safety, we decline to comment.

38. MRI machine - Perfect for after that Yanks-Sox game

39. Patagonia - The first to make polyester clothes out of old plastic bottles

40. Archie Comics - Betty or Veronica: 68 years and the debate rages on

41. The Golden Gate Bridge - Dirty Harry meets Full House. Uh oh.

42. Jazz - Even before Ken Burns discovered it

43. Fantasy football

44. S'mores

45. Trader Joe's - If cheap wine were apples, we present the modern Johnny Appleseed. Amen.

46. The 4th of July

47. Harley Davidson - The motorcycle company that has survived both the Great Depression and the Hybrid Obsession

48. March Madness - So crazy it spills into April

49. Scrabble - As Facebook proved, it's Scrabulous

50. Kegs - Even useful when empty, as moorings

51. Slip 'N Slide - Simple. Genius.

52. Ice cream - Ben and Jerry's, Breyers, soft serve… ours freezes the competition

53. Yellowstone National Park

54. Oreos - This choice bribed by the secret dairy farmers' cartel

55. Edward R. Murrow - A journalist who was cool? Sigh.

56. Restaurant week - The one week a year when snooty waiters have to play nice

57. Washington D.C. monuments at night - Lincoln looks good

58. Bugs Bunny - Every parent's dream: he's nice to doctors and he eats his veggies

59. Etch A Sketch - Don't shake away our faith in this one

60. Coca-cola - Hmmm… what does the "coca" stand for again?

61. Flip flops - Not the John Kerry kind, though both can be found on Nantucket

62. Vegas weddings

63. Napa wine - If anyone orders Merlot, we're leaving

64. Willie Nelson - Trigger

65. eBay - The only place where you can buy a single cornflake

66. Blueberries - Our favorite fruit that can't check email

67. The Rockettes - E-leg-trifying!

68. Charles Barkley - Hosting Saturday Night Live and pitching for T-Mobile, Sir Charles is now larger than life

69. Blue jeans - Levi Strauss invented the modern version only to see them become boringly ubiquitous

70. County fairs - We recommend you eat your corndog after swinging that sledgehammer at the High Striker game

71. The Oscars - A celebration of everything good and awful about Hollywood

72. Veterans - Thank you

73. Steakhouses - Thankfully, not rare

74. The Tiffany box - The only package more powerful than its contents

75. Sports mascots - The San Diego Chicken vs. the Phillie Phanatic

76. The Great Lakes

77. Salt water taffy - Delicious even though they contain neither salt nor water

78. Roller coasters - Possibly the only 30-second activity worth a three-hour wait

79. HBO - Even if we're unsold on the vampire craze

80. The Everglades - Where else would you go to get drunk and wrestle an alligator?

81. Bonnie and Clyde - Do you and your honey bunny rob banks? No? Then sit down.

82. Chewing gum - But please, remember that it's a silent activity

83. The light bulb - And we just keep inventing better ones!

84. Religious freedom - From Pilgrims to scientologists

85. Bagels - If you've never tried one, come to New York and make your first one an H&H

86. Judd Apatow films

87. The Billboard 100 - Measuring our music since 1958

88. Chipotle - And the guacamole really is worth the extra $2.25

89. Dalmatians on fire trucks - Black and white and red all over

90. Disney movies - Not yours, Nicholas Cage. The old school, animated ones

91. New Year's Eve - Every country has one, but they all watch Times Square

92. Elvis Presley - A hound-dog and the King

93. Cowboys

94. Turducken - A true American delicacy: a chicken in a duck in a turkey

95. Netflix - The only movie rental survivor

96. Spring Break - We plead the Fifth

97. Escalators - First used commercially in Yonkers, NY in 1899—who knew?

98. Stand-up comedy - Unless you are singled out

99. Redwood trees -The oldest is 2,200 years old

100. Bendy straws - Invented by a Cleveland entrepreneur—and perhaps Ohio's most significant contribution, though we tip our hats to the Wright Brothers and its 8 U.S. Presidents

101. Charlie Brown - Sorry, Charlie, maybe next time you'll crack the top 100


......And, can David Villa bring some cheer to me?

Call of the Androids

From Snail mail to email to radio paging to MMS and online networking, communication has come a long way and connectivity is everything today. I can't believe that it's now more than 10 years since i tested an application on Windows CE as a test analyst. Many years and multiple versions later, the silent war to gain foothold on the mobile operating system space led almost all the big names come up with their smart OS for the mobile applications. My career took me into the application testing domain more specifically on banking ERP and extended ERP. I recently, out of curiosity and more out of nostalgia looked up to this segment to catch up on advances in the past 10 years and was amazed to see that this market is hotter than ever and the Holy Grail for phone manufacturers and web content providers is precisely to eliminate the need for a separate mobile web space so that users can have everything on a microbrowser with a "m." prefixed before every website url. In these years, i have graduated to using a Blackberry for office emails and a Samsung for my personal calls and web browsing. Both these companies are big time into mobile operating systems with RIM, the makers of BlackBerry coming out with their v5.0 of the mBrowser which is touted to have a vastly improved internet browser. Samsung, on the other hand are incubating their smartphone OS 'Bada' . Nokia, the pioneers in mobile telephony for a while now are flashing their Symbian OS, the latest version called 'SymbianU^3' through which Nokia hopes its N Series will take on the deluge of Android devices from Apple. Microsoft, not to be left behind has its 'Windows Phone 7' and goes one step ahead and promises better integration with dektop machines and web services! Nokia partnered with Intel to come up with the 'Meego', the best part of which is that it is a Linux based platform for high end mobile phones and netbooks.


The best is now here- I, for one, thought Apple's popular iPhone was the undisputed leader in smartphone technology until i read about Android OS from Google. Now, anything new from Google should grab headlines and primetime in the opensource world (My blog is served fresh courtesy Google and of course thanks to the open source movement), which means the Android OS is available to a multitude of device manufacturers since it is open source. Remember the last time an opensource OS created such a furor (yes, Linux). The Android OS also supports touch screen devices -the rage amongst mobile users. A recent review i was reading also suggested that it supports capacitive multi-touch (pinch to zoom) technology. With a company like Google, it is hard to compete and reasons such as the email software on Android is from Google (i haven't heard anyone complain about GMail yet), Android uses the Chrome lite browser which again is efficient. And, if you have heard or used apps such as facebook, Google Sky Map,Evernote, Google Goggles and Layar - you know what i am talking about, these are all a part of the top apps already compatible and readied for the Android OS. Everything on the web will soon be a part of Google or managed by Google. Open source software does come with its fair share of cribs, devices for sure will need to be upgrade ready as the hardware may not just yet support it. I am already sold on the newest operating system from my favorite company - Android OS 2.1 from Google and just can't wait to lay hands on a device that runs on opensource OS - quite a journey when we tested evaluation versions of Windows CE.

And today, what does one need? A Google account!

Migrating Winrunner scripts to HP's QTP

Sometime in Q2 last year, my company asked me to evaluate what could be a painless migration program for moving our automation test repository into Quality Test Pro (QTP) from Winrunner which we had been using to generate tons of tests scripted across the various supply chain product. Personally to me, a WinRunner veteran, this came as a surprise and just the thought of the enormity of the effort and the costs we had invested over years to meticulously script, maintain and leverage these scripts to certify many a regression cycle shook us initially and more so when we discovered that the HP authorized partner vendor (WinQuick) were not of much help given the accuracy of migration they could promise and the prohibitive costs and time investments we would have had to make to get the old scripts working on QTP. I have been in similar POCs in the past with the most recent one being a migration of our configuration management system (From Borland's Star Team to IBM's Clear Quest and Clear Case), but the automation script migration effort was even trickier, not because we wanted, but just because Mercury was bought over by HP and they in turn decided to sunset WR and focus and consolidate the automated test market with the HP Quality Center which as a packaged solution offers automated software testing, governs QA processes and also can facilitate defect management. QTPsupports keyword and scripting interfaces and features a graphical user interface. It uses the Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) scripting language to specify a test procedure, and to manipulate the objects and controls of the application under test.


So, we are here today with much of a rewrite and reusing our data sheets in some places where the design allowed us. QTP is a simple to use tool which offers some flexibility but the costs associated and shortfalls the tool in its present form is worth a mention.

a. Descriptive programming in QTP is a pain

b. Improved runtime debugging support for VBS functional libraries was what i was expecting in an enhanced version of the QTP

c. Allow multiple QTP scripts to be open at the same time (like WinRunner having tabs). especially when i have modularized my scripts

d. More descriptive error messages rather than "Generic Error" message.

e. QTP running on a machine with Rational tools almost drains the memory of the box - QTP is certainly not a low resource hogger

f. Not capable of in-memory executions , which a highly priced automation solution of this generation should have provided

g. Support for asynchronous pages. HP could have surely provided a better support for Ajax. If the application had a way to put a wrapper around asynchronous calls so you could determine if the application is still waiting on an Ajax request, that would make testing Ajax web apps much easier.

h. HP should have put some more thought into making the interface to behave like an IDE. (Similar to the way visual Studio works)

i. Open API to call QTP from other tools (for example Visual Studio 2010).

j. There should have really been two types of licenses for QTP. One which can be used only for running the scripts/suites and second which is a superset, used for script development and execution both. Point is, I do not want to block my license for execution only and lose on the ROI on this investment. A developer/execution license set-up would be ideal. We, for example ended up buying many licenses which include the full GUI, but only need to be able to run remote tests. It seems like overkill to dedicate licenses just to run tests.

k. Provide better support for remote test execution. Quality Center could keep an inventory of enabled remote hosts (different from the current behavior today where it just does a scan of the LAN and gives a list of hosts). These hosts would probably have the remote agent running and would be accessible via IP address, not just machine name (making testing across subnets much easier). It would be a very client/server setup, where the clients register with the QC server. If the execution actually occurred through the QC server instead of through the QC client, that would also be nice (although this solution may not work for everyone depending on how your lab environment is configured). The QC server would then send all the remote execution requests to the remote hosts. The schedule would be kept on the QC server so a QC client connection would not be needed to initiate the remote runs.

So, despite all this we have embarked on our journey to migrate and migrate indeed to a state where we no longer intend to do mundane tests manually but leverage the power of QTP

Boredom - engagement of the imagination

I never knew as a four year old bubbly girl, my daughter Samiksha would come up to me and say "I am bored" and want to go to school. This is such a transformation from last summer, when my wife and I were short of having panic attacks, we were then actually goading and coaxing her to go to school and reasoning with her why children shouldn’t miss out on school and gave each other a high five each day after she boarded the school bus. Just when i had forgotten about this incident as an initial fear of a new place, i discovered the term Thaasiophobia - The fear of boredom. I was even surprised to read somewhere that this is common among the urban populace and can come in various forms -monotony, disinterest, torpor or simply apathy. Now this is not a simple thing to be dealt with as i have actually never dealt something like this. A similar complaint during my childhood days was promptly responded by "go read a book", "clean the car", ”go, play cricket” or "water the plants" or just run an errand. This probably led kids then to pick hobbies collect everything that was available -Stamps,Softdrink bottle caps, spinning tops, match labels, cigarette packs or do more creative things like building a scrap book of cricketing heroes or film stars for the more inclined or building models of automobiles and planes or get membership into a lending library. Talking of creativity, the first thing everyone talked about then ,was that of an "idle mind likened to the devil's workshop" and in the same breath cautioned that bored implied the mind being idle and degenerating (ugh!). Unlike most idle minds, Albert Einstein's was certainly more different. It is said that Einstein developed the theory of relativity when he was in a particularly bored state of mind (cool isn’t it, can’t even think what he could have done if he were to be any more focused)


Now, that still doesn’t explain whether bored people can be creative or creative folks get bored easily and either ways, it could be a good thing to get bored once in a while as long as it is a mere flagging of an interest and not lead to a longer lull or stagnation. My father -in-law, Dr C Sitaram (a renowned journalist) who has written an entire book on Schizophrenia, once casually told me the importance of being alone at least once during a day (This does not imply being lonely) and how this 'nothing time' helps to revisit memories and visualize dreams. I can tell you that it certainly does a lot of good to one’s temperament.and helps you feel your pulse.

Meanwhile, I am happy to see Samiksha talk to her toys and weave numerous make-believe stories around them and looking forward to the next birthday party of a friend and even more curious to know the theme of the party. I continue to spend my Saturday afternoons sitting in my balcony facing the swimming pool either reading or doing nothing. And being back in Eden (my balcony) doing nothing is not boring - It is peace!

Storytelling - An art,science or passion

As is the practice every evening, my daughter of 4 years asks me to narrate a bedtime story. I try hard to cook up a story each evening and must admit that i sometimes spend the commute back home from work thinking of one. The challenge however has been to think of a creative story all the time being careful about the message the story might leave on her young mind.
She loves listening to 'smart' stories which per her definition is when the central character in the story displays intelligence or presence of mind to tide over a situation to mark the logical end of a story.

I am already worried that her questions and inquisitiveness will very soon catch me on the wrong foot and my 24 years of tight rope education and grooming will look ordinary. I hope Google will rescue me like it has on numerous occasions. I also hope to never lose my patience and yell at her chiding her to study or go to bed.

The more i think about it, i only end up introspecting. I now realize i never studied anything expecting one day my daughter would come to me for answers. At least -so far she thinks her daddy knows and can do everything on the earth. All along i studied to pass exams, to beat someone or to ape another one. Introspecting today, i feel all the jargon and all that cutting edge stuff i learnt at various stages, sharpened and honed skills are of no use when i cannot engage her for 10 minutes with a captivating story..
Work pressures, meetings, time lines, managers, deliveries and reports all seem trivial when compared to this challenge that i am confronted these days. During my days at school, no one talked of 'Right brained' or 'Left brained' – One was either Brainy or woefully 'Bird Brained', This was around the time when Roger Sperry received a Nobel in medicine for this work on the roles of the left and right hemispheres of the brain viz. "creative and artistic" and "cognitively skilled" . Right brained pursuits are certainly acknowledged and sought after these days -probably the reason; many of my daughter's friends are into dance, art, music lessons at the age of 4!

Storytelling is helping my daughter learn to draw clearly from her own spoken narrative (not yet sure whether my stories are making an impact yet- My wife certainly has more time and patience). Storytelling surely is giving her ideas for expressing herself in a format which is clear, crisp and honest


....And as for me, i am on a mission to ensure my daughter turns out smarter and just about "right brained"