Lost Generation

I realize this may be a shock but
"Happiness comes from within"
is a lie, and
"Money will make me happy"
So in 30 years, I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life.
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
this is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destructions will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.

And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it.

Please read it in the reverse order (from bottom to top)

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

Sent to me by Deep Joy Majumdar

First Cartoon on Loksatta

Text Inside Cartoon : Our's is non-violent Naxalism.

Text Ouside Cartoon : We should not have said like that Sir. Since our government is doing non-violent encounters.

Press Release of Dr.JP on this : http://news.loksatta.org/2009/02/lok-satta-is-non-violent-naxalite-party.html

Courtesy: Eenadu.net

Your Privacy is an Illusion

It is technically possible for your cell phone provider to know where all places you have travelled with exact timings and the distance with a granularity of 0.5 km - 2 kms.

For cell phone to work, it has to send signals to the nearest tower. When it sends the signals, the tower comes to know of the area of this cell phone. If the service provider of the cell phone stores that information, then they can find out where all that person has gone at what time. It literally means, we are telling all our movements to the service providers.

This is the reason why Richard Stallman does not use cell phones.

Ain't this the truth??????

John Smith started the day early having set
his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN)
for 6 am. While his coffee pot (MADE IN CHINA )
was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG).
He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA)
designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE)
and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA).
After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA)
he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO)
to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN)
to the radio (MADE IN INDIA)
he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY)
filled it with GAS (FROM SAUDI ARABIA)
and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.
At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, checking his Computer (MADE IN MALAYSIA)
John decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL)
poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE)
and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA)
and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA.

How Important is Process in Development?

One team is facing the following problem.

The team is developing a new application. At the time of installing the first version, it needs to be populated with some data. If the data is in a structured format (like csv or xml), then the application can import it. But, the data is in unstructured format, and it needs to be converted to structured format.

All the team members are brainstorming on how to solve the problem.

Sr.PM: I agree that, it is not a challenging task (It means, it is very dirty work). If you want, I can get one contractor who can do this work of converting from unstructured format to our own format.

Deverloper: I can do this. You don't need to get a vendor for this.

PM: How will you do it?

Deverloper: I will write a script in vim to parse the unstructured format, and to change the data to structured format.

PM: Hmmmm. How will I run it?

Deverloper: I don't expect you to run it. I will run it. If you want to run it, you need to install vim. I will give you a script and a command, and you just need to run it.

PM: What about production machine?

Deverloper: I don't expect it to be installed on production machine. To install it on production machine, we need to get clearance from Legal department, and we will have many other problems. I expect this to be run only once on our local machine to convert the data from unstructured format to structured format. If the data is changed, then I can run this again to get the new data in structured format.

PM: But, if you write any program, then it has to be documented, and we should have clear instructions on how to install it and run it. The test team should be able to test it. If you only run it everytime, then we will have dependency on you.

Deverloper: No. You cannot do all those. It is a small script. Assume that, I am doing it manually.

PM: No. If you are going to write any program, then it has to be documented, tested and checked in the source control. You have to follow the entire process.

Deverloper: In that case, ignore whatever I said.

After that, the PM happily spent few days in manually converting the data from unstructured format to structured format.