Nov 30, 2005

Popular science articles?

Rediff has another "article", this time on AMD, even though the title indicates something about a sub-10,000 rupees PC.

Quote: "For the uninitiated, most PCs are loaded with 32-bit chips, which means they can process 32 bits of data every second. AMD's 64 bit offering is not only four times faster, it offers more Random Access Memory (RAM), the instant memory that is needed to perform various tasks while the computer is on."

32 bits of data every second? 64 bit offering is 4 times faster? Offers more RAM?

That makes me wonder on how misleading the other articles in the media could be. On personal finance, for example. Or on health, or how to get a job in a call center.

"
For the customer willing to listen to a story of finer algebraic detail, AMD has its "dual core technology" to talk about. This offers virtually two processors in one, which, working in conjunction, delivers more than twice the performance."

Right. Virtually two processors, more than twice the performance. Where do they find these writers?



Nov 23, 2005

"Survive Outsourcing" Blog?

Came across a blog entry titled: "If you are convinced that the US can't compete with India" where the author shows an example of someone (an Indian IT worker) who's changed 3 jobs in 6 months, and then says "If someone is on their 3rd job in 6 months, then it is impossible to believe that they have contributed anything of value for any of the organizations that they worked for."

This guy makes the same assumption that many others do; but all that '3 jobs in 6 months' means is that this person was at one company for 6 months. It doesn't say anything about how long the employee was with the 1st company! Nor does it say anything about why this person left the second company after 6 months. It could have been a family emergency or a medical emergency or a problem with the company not treating employees well or a company shutdown or a layoff.

The author of the "Survive Outsourcing" blog also says: "Having worked in this industry for 22 years, I realize that the learning curve has a major impact on productivity in this field." 'Bzzzzzt. Wrong!' as the Americans say. There are many people with job experiences of much less than 22 years who have the ability to hit the ground running and contribute to the project almost as soon as they join. It might take a week or two to get oriented and comfortable with the new company, but that's about it. Of course, the company would want new employees to stay for longer than 6 months but it's unfair to say that someone doesn't contribute to a company unless he stays in it for donkey's years, give or take a few.

Then he says "Regardless of what rate someone like the above author works at, an experienced person in the western world who isn't a serial job hopper is going to be a better value for any employer." I could say the same after replacing western with Indian. What he is trying to do is to paint all non-western persons as non-serial-job-hoppers, stable employees, who are not out to jump ship at every opportunity they get. And trying to portray Indians as job hopping opportunists.

But what really pisses me off is his comment in another post on his blog: "and the simple fact that even though Americans cost 4 times as much as Indians, we typically produce more work per person." I take offense at that statement, Mr. Steve Larrison. There are lazy people and good people in all industries, in all cultures. Making such sweeping generalizations will only start a flame war - "Indians are typically more hard working, sincere and talented than Americans. And we are much less violent too."

Nov 20, 2005

Rafting in the Ganga - Day 1

I've been meaning to write about my trip for the past several days. But one thing led to another, and I just couldn't bring up the enthu to type. Sunday afternoon is as good a time as any, I guess.

For the click-happy amongst my millions of readers - http://www.travelmasti.com/5elements-camp.html

The route we took is as mentioned in the website: Delhi - Meerut - Roorkee - Hardwar - Rishikesh - Shivpuri - Byasi - Sinthali - Kaudiyala, the name of the rafting camp is '5 elements'.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We were to travel in two vehicles, my boss's Scorpio (neat vehicle, that) and an Indica. The cab was supposed to pick me up from my home at the ungodly hour of 5:30 in the morning. I thought for a while that it might be easier to simply not sleep that night so as to be awake in time, but gave that up since we would probably have some activities planned for later in the day. Managed to wake up at 4 o'clock and was showered and dressed and packed (yes, I always pack at the last minute) and waiting outside my apartment block at 5:29. Hadn't factored in that the cab driver would have to wake up and go through all this too. He didn't turn up till well after 6, which threw our plans out of whack a bit. Went around and picked up the other folks and finally we were all heading out of Noida.

The journey itself was pretty uneventful, we stopped at a place called the Cheetal Grand for breakfast and had some narrow escapes on the highway (not according to the drivers though). The road was interesting enough, as all highways are, and was pretty well used. It was cold in the morning when we started off, but became pleasant as the day progressed. After some debate and enquiries on exactly where we were supposed to go, and some hard driving up the hilly roads, we reached the rafting camp. Or rather, we reached that point on the road where we could no longer ride in a vehicle and had to get off and haul ourselves down a hillside, over a bridge (which I call the Bridge of Fate, UT2004 players will remember that one) and down another hillside to actually reach the camp.

It was afternoon by then, and there was some confusion among the camp people about whether we were supposed to have lunch or not. Some of us tried to play volleyball while lunch was being prepared.

The camp itself is situated at a wonderful place, on the bank of the Ganga, on a white sanded beach, with hills all around, and the Bridge of Fate hanging above (yes, it's a suspension bridge, and we saw quite a few of them). There is a row of tents, which are assigned to the visiting rafters, and not much else. There was a bunch of what seemed to be techies from some company, having what seemed to be a seminar, being presided over by what seemed to be a professor from some ancient university. In any case, they left quickly enough, presumably having finished all their "team building" activities. We, on the other hand, were left to fend for ourselves and fell upon a pretty good lunch.

A few people tried their hand at kayaking, which wasn't fun enough because the kayak was tethered to the shore and they wouldn't let it go into the main stream, and also because nobody actually fell into the water. There was a small inlet into the beach where the water was calm and that's where the kayaking took place. We wandered off to look at the other visitors in the camp, and tried to play volleyball again. The afternoon passed quickly enough, and it started getting dark as soon as the sun went out of sight over some hills. The air grew chilly with the sun's passing and soon we were all clamouring for a bonfire. It was duly lit by the camp people and we spent some time sitting around it, toasting our feet and listening to the silence. Broken every now and then by a vehicle passing high up on the road above us, headlights glowing eerily and briefly. Also broken continuously by the rush of the water nearby, bubbling over the rocks on the riverbed.

Dinner was served and consumed and it was off to the tents to sleep.

Nov 9, 2005

River rafting

That's what I'll be doing this weekend (and Monday).

"The Adventure Links rafting camp is situated in the foothills of the Garhwal Himalayas on the left bank of the holy river Ganga. It is situated in one of the most beautiful and the biggest beach of the river. The camp is equipped with luxury tents, which are furnished with double camp cots and attached bath area. The toilets in the camp are dry toilets with wooden western seats. Apart from river rafting there are many beach games and jungle walks. There are provisions for rock climbing, meditation and yoga on request (extra payment). There is no electricity – lanterns are used for light." etc. etc.

Bloggers' meet?

There was a Delhi bloggers' meet sometime ago, it seems. The TOI claims there were only 4 people who turned up, including the organizer.

Question is, who organizes these 'meets'? Where do they put up the information that something like this is going to happen? I could be thought of as belonging to Delhi, and I had no clue that these people exist, leave alone that they are organizing a bloggers' meet. Not that I could have made it even if I knew about it.

But then, I'm not a REAL blogger, am I? Real bloggers have massive readerships and have 'popular' blogs (means the same thing, no?). Real bloggers take on the MSM (main stream media, it seems) and write passionately about issues that affect the lives of everyone. Real blogging is an alternative to the MSM! Real blogging should maintain standards of ethical journalism.

I think I should shut shop and crawl into a hole somewhere (some might say that's where I belong anyway, but we'll let that pass). When did my personal log on the web get hijacked by journalism? When did the fact that I put some content on the web force me to join a 'community' of bloggers? A blogosphere? Gimme a break. Dedicated readership? Gimme another break! Where do these people find the time to go around reading so many blogs and commenting and discussing about them?

And now people have started complaining that bloggers are mostly IT professionals and that blogging has not reached down to the common man! Excuse me, but since when does the common man have the time, money and inclination to purchase a computer, leave alone getting on the web by paying through his nose and then figuring out how to put up a blog?

Oh, before I forget, let's organize a Noida bloggers' meet...

Nov 4, 2005

Debt

Was reading this article on rediff about what to do with an unexpected windfall. Not that I have a windfall coming my way, I just wanted to see what the author had in mind. One point caught my fancy:

4. Look at settling your debt

You could also spend your windfall clearing your debt. Servicing a personal loan or credit card debt is very, very expensive. The rates of interest are in the 18% to 30% category. It would be better to clear the loans so that you don't spend any more of your money in paying off this massive interest.

Interesting how the writer assumes that everyone would have a debt. Nowhere does he/she mention 'debt (if you have one)'. Am I the only person out here who doesn't have a debt or a loan? Why is it mentioned so casually in this article? If I did have a loan on which I was paying 18-30% interest, wouldn't paying it off be the first thing on my mind if I get an extraordinary amount of money? Are there really people who wouldn't pay it off?

Uh...

“The IT companies represent only one face of the city. They should also look at the other face (slums). There is immoral, unethical and illegal prosperity on the one side and poverty-stricken people who are moral and ethical on the other. Ms Sonia and Mr Singh should visit the slums in Bangalore to know the gap between the living conditions of these two classes.”

Apparently, so said a politician in November 2004. Does he try to imply that the IT companies are somehow responsible for the condition of the hapless people in the slums? The bit about 'man is a thinking animal' starts to get dimmer every time I hear these folks.

Assembling a computer

I read an "article" in a Times of India supplement today morning giving "tips" on this topic. I can't remember all of it now, but a couple of things that got my goat - a scanner and a TV tuner are both output devices and may conflict with one another; and Windows 98 is better for games than Windows XP.

I have only seen a couple of shady games that absolutely refused to run under XP, I guess all the games released after XP was released would run just fine. And I don't know whether Doom 3 will agree to run on 98.

Another recommedation was to avoid serial ports and go for as many USB ports as one can - honestly, I have NOT seen any motherboard commercially sold in the past several years that didn't have a USB port. Something along the lines of 'avoid USB 1.1, get USB 2.0, look for FireWire' would make much more sense. Serial port? I think I'll keep one, thanks, to plug my old external modem into.

There was another statement along the lines of 'multimedia is optional, buy speakers only if you need them, sound is overrated, just for effect, etc.'. (I, for one, never bought into this 'multimedia enabled' marketing gobbledegook. What does it mean? That there is a sound card and a couple of cheap speakers? It may have made sense when there was no integrated sound on the motherboard and getting a sound card was a big deal. Why don't they just say 'sound enabled'? What other media does a multimedia computer support anyway?) Sound is mostly integrated nowadays and speakers cost starting from 500 bucks. What's the idea behind advising people to not go for it?

The point behind this post is to wonder who the people are who write such 'tips'? Do they know what they are talking about and seriously dumb down the article to cater to the layman? Or are they just filling out space? Why don't they recommend specific configurations instead of making statements like 'Windows 98 is better for games'? Why don't they explain the Megahertz (now Gigahertz, I guess) myth? Why don't they tell us all about FSB, HT, HTT, IDE, SATA, AGP, PCIe, GB, GHz, kbps and so many other terms that a normal buyer would choke upon?

I feel so strongly on this topic because I have been approached by many folks asking for a recommendation on a configuration. They plan to buy the very latest ('I NEED a 3.2GHz CPU', 'I NEED Intel', 'I want the 800MHz FSB', 'I will get a webcam and 5.1 speakers') when all they know they will do is surf the web and read email and play their MP3's. Articles in the media only seem to contribute to the confusion. And a scanner is not an output device, neither is a TV tuner.

Nov 2, 2005

Trade Unions...

Was reading some articles on the Left call for trade unions in the IT industry. Most IT folks have taken exception to this idea, but I, for one, think it might actually work.

Conditions apply, of course. No political interference. No 'affiliations' to other organizations or an umbrella union. No strike calls by anyone outside the industry.

The reason I think it might work is that IT workers, by far, are much more sensible than the workers in other industries. I can hardly imagine my friends and colleagues protesting on the road and holding up traffic. I cannot imagine them striking work asking for better pay, or protesting against privatization or takeovers. In fact, I cannot think of any of us doing anything for which the unions have earned themselves a bad name!

On the other hand, a union might give us a platform for support when one of us is in trouble. Case in point is the poor management guy who was beaten up on Bangalore railway station. The authorities claim he was drunk and that he has withdrawn his complaint, but his blog tells a different story. Without going into the merits of his particular case, if such a thing were to happen to me or to any of my friends, it would be so much easier if we had a union with clout behind us. Think about it.

So my vision of an IT industry union is the very definition of the word. A coming together of people, with no agenda to pursue other than the wellbeing of its members. Of course, the 'usual' unions were probably formed with the same goal, but they have been traditionally confrontationalist. With a 'we-against-the management' attitude. I'm banking on the premise that IT workers are in a better league. What we need is really just a platform, not a union in the sense that we see it in other industries.

I don't think issues like overtime, working conditions, etc are really anything to discuss about in this context. Overtime makes sense in a call center perhaps, but certainly not in a software development or in a R&D house. This industry is inherently different in that we don't have fixed actions to perform which will generate fixed products which are then sold. I don't have a fixed output of say, lines of code every day. My employment is task or project based and overtime makes no sense. This is captured in my contract which states that I am an 'exempt' employee. The problem with the leaders calling for a union is that they simply don't understand the nature of the beast. Calling for overtime to be paid to software engineers is only going to get them laughed at.

Bangalore and the IT industry

I managed to see an NDTV programme on this topic. And I found it funny. All these politicians and CEOs and theatre personalities and historians going on about how IT is not the only industry in the city and that the common man has not benefited by the boom and how culture is being neglected and how it was the previous government's fault and so on and on and on.

For me the point is very simple. Is the road in front of my house full of potholes? Yes (in fact it hasn't been relaid for 3 years I would guess, ever since I moved in there). Is Airport Road congested? Yes. Is the flyover still unfinished? Yes. Is the international airport still in the works? Yes. Is public transport still woeful? Yes.

Where does IT come into the picture here?

If the local guv'mint thinks that there are too many people coming into the city and that there is a strain on the infrastructure, they should stop that influx; and not allow more companies to set up shop, and not allow expansion of existing companies. Tell Wipro and Infy to go away. Problem solved.

Why does the presence or otherwise of any particular industry prevent the guv'mint from building roads that don't vanish in the first rains? Or from cleaning up the drains? Or providing good public transport?

Another comment: *some* politicians should really learn to speak with a bit less arrogance. Or perhaps that is the difference between 'successful' leaders and the rest of us - they think the world revolves around them while we know it doesn't.

DVD player

Back from a quick trip to Bangalore. Got a DVD player too, one of the cheapest I could find. It looks like Bangalore was flooded with these, every shop had a big stack. Philips 3005 for Rs. 2999 only. Of course, by a strange quirk of fate, I ended up with the 3007. I'm even supposed to get a 5% cash back on my credit card for this.

I also helped in shopping for a washing machine for my friend. That's something that is a must for us guys living alone, but I didn't find any model that's geared towards a single person's washing. Most seem to be big enough for families.

I was in the market for an ipod too, but the prices in rupees were atrocious. Someone even quoted me 35K for a 40GB ipod. Considering a 60GB video ipod is $399 on the Apple store, I've decided to give up for now. We were planning to go check out the Apple store (a physical Apple store) but didn't get time. Why is stuff so costly in India?

Got myself a Logitech MOMO racing wheel too. Had a great time fitting it into my suitcase, of course I had to leave the nice box behind.