Quake !!

Normal life in Chennai and other coastal areas in Tamil Nadu came to a halt on Wednesday afternoon following those mild tremors that were a fall out of the massive earthquake near Sumatra in Indonesia. Well, that’s part of the news,  but the way our normal life came to a halt was hilarious ! We also knew that the two most affected places during that earthquake were Facebook and Twitter  
As a part of our relaxing therapy , we played  table tennis for around 30 minutes.  We use this 1-2pm as our standard timing, as the TT table was the second most highly used equipment next to the coffee vending machines at office . Once we were done, we headed to the cafeteria to have our lunch.  As usual we started trolling one of our friends with some funny pictures taken at college. It was then our Director came running in, to announce the earthquake news. Since we were at one end, we didn’t hear anything at first, and so we thought that he was calling us for an emergency meeting. On the other side, we were starving to death and were desperate enough to carry on with our lunch. But within few minutes, we were the only people left out.  We had no other choice, but to leave the cafeteria and get down to the rescue zone (too much of Counter Strike ).
It was only after getting down, we witnessed a plenty of things going around !  First thing that I noticed were photographers , different types of photographers all around. One set of people tried to utilize the opportunity to take a photograph of their female / male co-workers . And then there were these people who were taking group photos amidst that crowd as if they were the part of a winning IPL team at a post match presentation. Third and the largest category of people were trying to take a long shot as in a Shankar’s movie. Even I tried to take some, but since I was short enough ,  I couldn’t get that long shot as expected. It was when I noticed the fourth set of photographers still at the 7th floor  trying to take the top view shot amidst all these chaos ! (I remembered that guy who’ll try to capture Godzilla’s atrocious moves by standing beneath it instead of running of his life )
                After witnessing those terrific photographers, we saw couples everywhere,  you might ask me “yea  so what ? you can see them everywhere, even now”, true but even amidst those tremors few reserved all the shady short trees planted in the garden for them to… * yea discuss about their future *.. that’s how they call it   My my, they didn’t leave the short bushes either ! The summers in Chennai are so hot, that could turn a fish into a dry fish within a couple of minutes and  for those couples who came out late had no other choice but to take a sun bath.
 We went in after the first tremor, and as soon as we sat down in our respective cubes we entered the holiday mood besides all this commotion. Most of them felt the second tremor as soon as we settled down.  It was when everyone started packing really fast.  A certain team’s  supervisor asked everybody to evacuate the place really quick, it was when my friend  asked for 10 more minutes just because the movie he was copying from a friend’s hard disk was pretty slow  !!  We can even accept this guy, but our guru to the right (“iddiyae vilunthaalum work pannuvaen” #thamizh) he was working till that last moment, Not to mention that he is the technical guru of our team. 
                   One other ridiculous thing that happened in a certain MNC’s buildings : nobody were allowed to go out as their buildings were strong enough for earthquakes with a Richter of 11.7 Thoppi Thoppi but some of our friends from here called them and shared all their quake stories !!
               I did not seriously understand why we were waiting beneath those huge weak buildings, because if an earthquake occurs, then I’m sure all of us would have lost our lives. Initially we were asked to move into the safe zone of the park, that was an open area which can accommodate only people from one/two towers but there were 10+ towers totally !  So I guess, because of lack of space people just stood out where ever they wished too. An earthquake would never set a reminder event to our outlook before attacking us, the max we can do is to take all the preventive measures !

Corporate Ethics : revisited !

”It’s high time guys, now that you have been dropped into the middle of the ocean, you have two options, either you get killed by the sharks out there or swim across the ocean and get to the other end. No, you cant come back to the same shore where you began, men armed with guns are there at the shore !”  This was the welcome quote given by a renown leader when I entered my corporate life. He was right, we ought to get past those sharks, and swim across which is not an easy task at all. But there are few things that I would like to share, which might help you swim a couple of miles more.
Before all that, I’m dedicating this post to a junior guy who hastily left even before I shared these things with him.
Myth 1 : Whichever company you work for, may it be a product based or a service based, remember it’s not the techie guy who outshines everybody.
If you were thinking it the other way, I guess you need to reconsider it. The guy who is technically well equipped cannot survive without a marketing skill. Whatever may have been the task assigned to him / her, say he/she might have written a new driver or a component  or he/she could have fixed a minor website issue, what one needs here is the ability to project the accomplishment that he/she has done. No, I’m not asking you to send mails at the end of each minor task late at night, that’s “over projecting” which might end up with extra load of work assigned to you. At the same time, you cannot project something that you have not done or not known so far (I’m purposefully adding “not known” here). That names you as a non-trustable resource. Yea, it’s very delicate and I’m sure you can develop this skill with a help of a mentor.  If you have watched this movie named “Hitch”, you’ll know how delicately Will Smith teaches him to hold his girl by her waist. If your hand moves up, it’s holding her like a friend or if u grab her ass that becomes a lecherous move. SO That spot is right out there.
Myth 2 : To research , learn and then fix is not always going to work.
See, there are two main things you ought to keep in your mind while you are working on something. TIME and PRIORITY !! if we are about to hit a deadline and you are out there doing a research kinda to fix a simple one, yea yea you are obviously screwing it up. The same applies here, if you are boss wants you to fix a production issue don’t be Dr. Vasikaran or a GD Naidu . Get help from somebody somehow and close it immediately. The research things and “what would I learn out of this?” kinda questions can be answered when you have got nothing to do ! Feel free to get help from anyone anytime. Don’t ever feel bad about it, else you can’t learn something new. But at the same time, It’s not necessary to broadcast a message to everyone saying that “Hey, I do not know anything”, “Nan jailuku poraen jailuku poraen, nanum rowdy, naanum rowdy” kinda .. Nope ! .. There is a special myth(4) explaining about this below..
Myth 3 : Even if there is nothing much to be done for a project, the management’s tendency is to show that there is so much within..
Don’t panic !! Don’t ever panic !!! As you are new to this project, get along with the other senior members of the team. Talk to them and get an overview of how things are working and what are pending. If you are asked for a daily stand up, just be present, merely present. Everybody knows that you are new, they are not going to expect you to lift the mountain in a day. But they act as if they expect you to lift one. Never mind, that won’t affect your performance rating . 
Myth 4 : “Paavam punniyam paartha intha thozhiluku vara mudiyaathu” #Tamizh .. You cannot be a saint, if you want to be in this field . 
You cannot be so humble and expect the management to do things for you. Plainly speaking, that will not pay your EMIs. If you are trying to be so humble, watch out ! There are so many people just like the hawk to grab all your credits. They just wait on their prey, a single mistake and your gone. I knew one of my friend who worked all night long with a presentation, with all the statistical data put together and the very next morning someone else presented it , and they took all his credits. What is the use of all that hard work that went in ? I’m definitely not asking you to steal someone’s credits, but I’m asking to you stand firm with what you have done. And yea, don’t pretend as if it was an easy task too. Stealing someone’s credits/work is just same as adulterating.

She wasn’t beautiful part -2

         ..  continued..  In every group, there will be a smart guy who speaks more than that tea's worth. Forgive him, for i have spoken the same dialogue so many times .. Yea, I did not wait for anything he continued, She had replies that had a positive touch. And so, I slipped my phone number carefully while she was about to travel to her native.

[Side Note : I’m writing something that happened just like a pattern in many of my friends life. *evil grin* for all those who took it the other way ]

     From then on, it started with :  "had ur dinner ?” ..  “cross the road carefully” .. “eat properly” and then to :"what’s your favorite color ? …  "who do u like in ur family ?"  “Do you know to cook ?” (eligible for a TV host ? yes ). Those are the times when one finds the virtual world more colorful and interesting than reality. He looked pale, he said  “It was then I found out that she was already in a complicated relationship “. God !! What ?? Yea, he continued with a serious tone, she has a guy studying abroad whom she calls as her best buddy blah blah...

     There’s a another type of guy in every team, who looks at everything with a positive attitude, he went forth, and had his say  : “hey what if he's the best buddy ? How do you think that affects your chances of getting through” .  (As if he is attempting to get through Civil services exam) Mr. Attitude continued, It's simple,  put down your thoughts and let her decide what she wants. One of my other friend in the group  opposed it, he said that it would be one of the biggest mistakes in his career, never try your luck with a girl who is in a complicated relationship. It makes the situation even more worse. Those words are still there in my heart, I can never forget him, but what’s the use ?Spilt MILK !

      Hero nodded his head, acknowledging the above said words and we kinda guessed what might have happened. He started off again, I shared my views : getting settled, with her by my side and I also had a feeling like one of those fairy tales : “happy lived ever after” .  I shared her my point of views of how I would like to take her from this point (Mt or a Cliff ??  ) etc., At first she was snuggling to get into a comfortable position but later on, *I felt* she was totally comfortable with me. I had an opportunity to meet her,  her cousin, and that cousin’s girl friend on a certain day in the city. And we even managed to spend that whole day in a couple of tourist spots. It was then, she opened up some more interesting facts, he sighed.

       She told me a weird thing, What now ??!.. She told me that her mom was not interested in getting her married to some other guy at any cost. But why and whom does she think of getting her married to ? was the question which popped immediately. Well of course, he continued, (like MS Dhoni in a post match presentation..) Her mom has other plans for her it seems, which she herself is not aware of and she said that she is emotionally attached to her than any other person in this world. Even a test tube baby loves his/her mom, why do they utter such words ? as if they are they only creatures who are attached to their moms… Phew murmured the girl hater.

        His tone became even more duller, when he said, I didn’t know machan, I didn’t know the implication of those words first. But after saying all that, she came near me held my hand and said “don’t let me off at any point of your life” .. That’s the epic moment we were waiting for, whistles all over the room. The guy who spoke about the complicated relationship, had the guts to stay calm. As soon as the celebrations were over, he said you cannot trust such kinda gals who are fickle minded. Risky !

        But he continued, She wants to fall in love, she likes me very much but at the same time, she wants to do what her mom decides for her. (Briefly in Tamizh, Kilinja kudai kiliyaaama venum) Like that of a pendulum, her thoughts were swaying from one corner to the other. What else do you think I can do ? Nothing much, I used to come back to my room everyday and rant about her missing messages. And I used to ask my roomie (–> me ), why do I feel so bad when she despises me, I have even written down letters, things that I wanted to tell her. I have even tried convincing myself that this will not happen and to carry on with my life. As a friend said, keep the green tree in your heart, the singing bird will surely come.. (wait, wait.. Even I’m searching for him ) But, “Mudiyala” he concluded.. It was time and that talk became so serious that somebody had to definitely break the ice.

        We were damn interested, we asked him “ after that ?” yea, all of them together in that chorus fashion.. Well, I waited for a few more months and then came a shocker. She said that she is getting engaged , and she will be leaving to Singapore immediately after that. Her mom came to know about all this stuff, and they immediately decided to send her off. He said that casually, just like ordering a pizza at Dominoes. (We were like WTF?!), he said, yea she decided to marry the guy whom her mom has decided for her. But even while conveying that message, She said that she likes me and she wants to be with me. Atrocious, what does she think of you ??   A tool ? A toy ??, we lost our temper. We didn’t know what might have been running in that girl’s mind but we were damn sure that this guy lost that spirit with which he started narrating that story.

        Finally, the guy who spoke with much clarity all throughout the talk concluded, I knew this da.. This  happens, and that was the reason why men of the 70s / 80s never allowed women to decide on things which they were never good at. I know that’s a bit too strong to quote here but yes, that was a college boys’ perspective, so to say a losing side’s perspective. Why does one have to spoil other’s life, if they themselves are not sure about how things are going to be ? We accepted all this, but even after so many things, he said that the girl still tried convincing him that “SHE STILL LOVED HIM” [dot]

She wasn't beautiful

Whenever I ask my friends to narrate their romantic stories, the first thing they say is "She was such a beautiful girl" (even if she looks like a witch, we are forced to accept that with a smile and collect that free tea which they get for you ;) )! Just to break away from that cliche I've planned to narrate a story with a different start. Hmm.. hmm, anyways title's partially true as well (forgive me). Wait a sec, I missed a cautionary note here: This post is a blend of some *Truth and fiction* and I've made sure, the composition / blend is perfect.

This is one of those stories that I've heard during a semester's eve. One would not get to know how special that eve is except for an engineer,when the book remains totally untouched for the last 6 months ! Even then, that's when we share a lot of thriller / romantic / action stories that had happened in the past. One such a romantic thriller is this one, I do not know how many of would nod your head after reading this but I'm sure this should have happened in many of our lives.

Met her in a wedding occasion, he said.. Hey, you said orkut the other day ? interrupted a friend with his recent finding, yea yea.. I came to know about her through Orkut but met her for the first time in a wedding occasion, he managed to answer..the way a guy manages to connect those dots while narrating, Aiyo.. ! (*Orkut is a social networking website :P ) after that, i sent a msg via Orkut saying that I might know her through one of my family members, you should have seen his facial reactions,especially when he said "my family members". Waah, I still don't remember a single good thing that he has shared about his relatives in the recent past. But now, to get a single positive tip about how she was related to her, he has performed some kinda FBI investigation.

It is that day I understood a fact that not only a jealous girl but a boy who wants to know about his gal would dare to do anything to get the info they need. Somehow, I tracked all the related details da, he continued..She seems to be my cup of tea. Trust me, even If she has committed a couple of murders and she is a part of a terrorist organisation, he would say the same thing. She seems to be a comely girl and I indirectly asked her if she was "Single". She said that she wasn't interested in a relationship right from her schooling and she said that she hasn't met her kinda boy yet. Her parents are friendly with her, and her mom seems to be a very straight forward person. She has a sister it seems ra, but her route is clear. (actually he meant to say, his route was clear) Finally a friend interrupted him, he said..wow, thats amazing..!! She comes from a good family bg, same community, "distant" relative and the most important thing is she's still SINGLE.. so what are you waiting for ?

To be continued..

Truth about : Product vs Service based

When I reached my pre-final year of engineering at MIT, I witnessed my T-Senior’s placement struggles as all others. In MIT we have this tradition of calling one as “Technocrat Senior” – the senior guy with the same register number, who is technically the guide for everything.  I was interested to know how he managed to clear his interviews and other things. My T-Senior was an interesting guy, you can never see him studying much but still he scores. One of the best choreographers, and right now a director as well !

I didn’t ask much about his interviews, Frankly speaking I was little afraid that his friends might rag me  (even though I was in my pre-final year ), but still he shared his experience with a certain MNC where he cleared all the rounds. Prior to this MNC which comes in the dream category, we were allowed to have an offer from a non-dream category as well. And yes, he had an offer from a service company (non-dream quota) with that in hand, he entered the final rounds of the product company (dream quota).

He said that he was questioned as why would he chose this company to the one for which he had an offer already. He told them an analogy which is, if a kid is given a new toy to play with, he/she always likes to play with them for a longer time than the older one. And immediately they asked him what if another new toy comes in ?!! Actually he didn’t expect that, Clever guy .. he managed to come up with an answer to overshadow the mistake he made in the analogy quoted above. He then said, that’s a service company and this is a product company. I would like to contribute to a product and be recognized among the few rather than being a part of a crowd, where the probability of me & my work going unnoticed is pretty high. Taking into consideration :  work load, work-life balance and the package compensation, he said I’d rather choose this one.  

Well, that was his answer and yea I know that everyone has their own version for this. Some might agree with this, while some might argue about the onsite opportunities etc. But the truth is, almost all the things are same. What I hear from most of my friends working across different product companies is that, the kind of work taken over by them (ie., in India) is almost similar to that of the service side. I mean, none of the product companies do own the core technology projects here except for few, and all others own projects that needs maintenance, support, UI  plumbing and documentation. (trust me )

And if you take into consideration about the work load, work-life balance and the *package compensation*, it might look like its skewed to one side (product side) but its not ! .. It’s the same, except for the dress code and the work timings. The above mentioned answer was attractive only during  our final year, when we had a product company’s offer letter in our hands, but the truth  :-/ nobody told us. We had it figured out ourselves. No no, Im not going to tell you that the far off land is always green Noo…  After two and a half years, I’m telling you that its :” Same Shit  “.. !

Definitely not Technical !

When we are supposed to hit a milestone there are a plenty of “do’s” and “don’ts” to be specific.This was the first thing that I learnt after being here for a couple of releases.  And, yea that was a bumpy ride !! All of the software engineering theories  that we studied in the past vanished into thin air. You cannot blame anyone, for that’s how it goes. Theories are always theories and it can only give you a rough image of things look like in a blurry fashion, but definitely the practical experience is far different from what you have learnt.

Been through a lot of things these days and one of them stands out exceptionally.And that was a mail / note that I sent on a *Saturday* evening, 2 days before a certain milestone requesting for a day OFF, since I had a soar throat. The intensity of the work and the pending work items on my plate were posing serious threats to my ETA (estimated time of arrival they say). One more thing to keep in your mind is : 2 weeks back my integrity was questioned to the core (trust me – to the core).

With all this running through my mind, I was typing that mail on Saturday with an one sided head ache . Quoting “ Hey so and so, I have completed so much and I will not be able to come tomorrow. I’m taking a day off because of this health issue. “ When I came back home, I happily told my mom that I will not be working tomorrow and I have applied for a leave. It was when my mom told me that tomorrow is a Sunday  and only a person like you would apply for a leave !

I was like WTF ??!.. the thing to conclude here isnt that I’m a workaholic, definitely nooo.. but this is what 3 consecutive working weekends can do to a fun loving guy like me

Iphone 4 and unlocking it..

This is a pretty sad story of me ending up using a costliest ipod ! I thought of sharing it with everyone so that the same mistake can be avoided in future.

If you are owning a brand new IPHONE 4, I mean a locked one and if you are trying to unlock it.. Then never go for a software update ! If you wish to upgrade your OS to iOS5, then there are some special steps that you need to do. This is called as “preserving BASEBAND”. In Iphone’s terms, BASEBAND plays a vital role.

What’s a baseband ?

Baseband is something associated with the cellphone’s antenna, or say a firmware for the gsm modem. So what does it do ? The iphone’s baseband will take over all the functions associated with the sim card and an antenna. Using this you can a send  text msg, make a call, pick the right signals from the towers etc., Baseband has some link to the bluetooth and the WiFi too which I am not pretty much sure !

 

 

Now how does your baseband get updated when you update your OS?

Well, whenever apple does an update there will be two separate  updates. One is for the baseband firmware and the other is for the OS, both are two different updates but happens the same time. Once you update the baseband, and then there is no way (so far) to downgrade it. Where as, you can downgrade the OS if apple signs the lower versions of it. Which means, when u do an OS upgrade from 4.3.5 to 5 and at the same time if your baseband goes to 4.11.08 from 01.59.00 .. you can get back to 4.3.5 but your baseband remains at  4.11.08 only ! if some one tells you that baseband can be downgraded, plz don’t enter that site it’s a scam for sure.

If they are two different updates, can we ignore the BaseBand and just update the OS alone ? (preserving the baseband)

Yes, you can. And this is what you should have done first case. At first preserving BB was only possible from a MAC machine, ie., we are supposed to create a custom firmware from the stock firmware. By doing this, the BB update present in the stock firmware will be removed in that custom firmware which you have created now. And using the shift+resore option from the iTunes you can do this. For creating the custom firmware, we use a tool named Pwnage in Mac.

 

Right now, this can be done with windows PCs also. We need a tool named RedSnow 0.9.9b8, using this we can accomplish the above said steps. This is a trustworthy tool, and you can go ahead with this.

“Baseband gets updated, and so what ? why can’t I unlock my phone now ?”

This question was the first to pop in my mind, all the unlocks for the iphone depends on BASEBANDs only. First of all, you should be pretty clear with whats an unlock and whats a jailbreak. You can jailbreak even iOS5.0.1 beta but u cannot unlock 4.11.08. I guess u must have got a clue with the above said statement.

Whats a jail break ?

Yes, Jailbreaking is something associated with the OS & firmware. By default apple does not allow you to install any other third party applications in your iphone.    To break that our iphone devs have come up with this “cydia”, that’s just an addition to our OS through which we can install all the apps that were not signed by Apple. In other words “iPhone firmware is modified to allow unsigned code to be run to gain access to files that Apple wouldn’t normally let you access”.

Now what’s unlocking ?

Most of the apple phones are locked with a certain carrier, (AT&T etc.,)..Unlocking is the removal of SIM restrictions on the modem, allowing the use of the iPhone on any carrier. If you think why should I buy a locked phone why not a factory unlocked phone ? Oh, yea the cost factor comes into picture. Factory unlocked costs around 34.5k (INR), and the locked one is around 10k-15k.

There are two types of unlock :

1) Soft unlock  (only after a jailbreak you could do a unlock.)

2) hard unlock (use of gevey sim)

Gevey sim is a thin piece or a sheet like which is kept over the normal sim before inserting. Once you place it above, and insert.. all you gotta do is “call 112” (emergency call) for 2 seconds. And then immediately you need to switch the airplane mode on and then off.. That’s it as far as the Gevey sim is concerned. The cost of that sim is around 35$, and there are places in chennai where you can get it for 1K.

I found most of my friends doing the same mistake, “I accidentally updated my OS to iOS5 without preserving my baseband” .. now what can I do ?

Remember, ultrasnow / Redsnow / Snow breeze or the Gevey sim card works based on the basebands. And so far we have no official updates to unlock 4.11.08. At this point there is not much to say. But stay tuned, I am following some iphone devs and hackers for the unlock updates. Until then u should “hacktivate” your phone and use it as an ipod or itouch whatever.. Well if you want to hacktivate your phone, u should get that iOS 5 jailbreak version and do it using RedSnow or SnowBreeze. (if you want more details about this, drop a mail I’ll pass you the links which works)

follow me for more updates at Twitter : @IamWini