Rajesh's Blog

SSIS- Cannot convert between unicode and non-unicode string data types

2011-07-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

I was trying to read data from a CSV file and move records to SQL Server 2008 tables using SSIS 2008. I encountered an error "cannot convert between unicode and non-unicode string data types ssis 2008". I could fix this issue by following the same given at http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1393. Worth reading it if using SSIS.

A snap from Valley Forge

2007-04-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

A hut at Valley Forge

2007-04-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

One of the huts in Valley Forge, used by US soldiers when they were fighting against The English 300 years back.

@ Valley Forge: Krishna, Me, Manas, Shyam and Sony

2007-04-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

Snow Fall: View from hotel

2007-04-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

It's me!!!

2007-04-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

Replication in SQL Server

2007-04-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

I came across the following link when refreshing replication for a new project. Hope this would be helpful for somebody visit my blog.

http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/SQL-Server/Replication-SQL-Server-2000--Part-1/

http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/SQL-Server/Replication-SQL-Server-2000-Part-2/

Enjoy!!!

NUnitForms and Unit Testing User Interfaces

2006-12-27T03:38:00.000-08:00

I was working on unit testing a windows application and came across a helpful blog in MSDN. Here is the details and sample windows c# application demonstrating how to unit test a user interface using NUnitform.
#Unit Testing User Interfaces

Ganglion Cyst

2006-11-29T00:37:00.000-08:00

A cyst has been developed in the wrist of my left hand. If i remember correctly, it showed up over night around 8 months back. It was not painful but irritating and not generally considered harmful. I went to doctor and he told me that its nothing but "Ganglion cyst" known by its nickname "Bible Bumps"
Follow this link to read more about Ganglion cyst.

.NTE- Build Automation

2006-11-21T01:54:00.000-08:00

Build Automation in .net Applications

A request

2006-11-16T00:33:00.000-08:00

Here is an email received from a senior of mine. I thought to post it here in blog as its a pointer to everyone. Here it goes...

Hi all,

A colleague of mine passed away on the 11th of November. He had a massive cardiac arrest while working out at a gym and was pronounced DOA at the hospital. The autopsy showed several 90-95% blocks in his heart. The guy was a teetotaler, non-smoker and basically a vegetarian. The doctors were surprised that there were no symptoms at all -- and the worrying part is the fact that he was just 30 years old (leaves behind wife and 2 sons - a 4 year old and a 10 month old baby).

The reason I sent out this mail is to request everyone to go ahead and have a proper medical checkup ( a simple blood test is not enough). Have a checkup that has a TMT, ECG etc etc. Please do this immediately. Please do go for a checkup. I have been deeply affected by the plight of his family and hence this mail.

BTW I do have these checkups done. I did have a checkup last August -- planning to get one more done now ( I probably need it more than most of you) :-)

Also for those who have taken home loans (consider taking out an insurance on the loan so that in case of some unfortunate incident our family will be spared some financial burden).

regards
Rajesh Jose

Spline

2006-11-16T00:27:00.000-08:00

Spline- Read from Wikipedia

c#- External component has thrown an exception

2006-11-12T23:25:00.000-08:00

Read details

Please help Pooja find her parents

2006-11-12T21:13:00.000-08:00

Please help Pooja find her parents

LINQ for VB.Net

2006-11-07T04:33:00.000-08:00

Introducing LINQ for Visual Basic.NET- developer.com

Adjust combobox drop down list width- C#

2006-11-07T02:44:00.000-08:00

This method is to adjust combobox drop down list width to longest string width in the list. Combobox menu width increases to longest string in the list. Invoke this method in the DropDown event of combobox.

public static void SetComboScrollWidth(object sender)
{
try
{
ComboBox senderComboBox = (ComboBox)sender;
int width = senderComboBox.Width;
Graphics g = senderComboBox.CreateGraphics();
Font font = senderComboBox.Font;

//checks if a scrollbar will be displayed.
//If yes, then get its width to adjust the size of the drop down list.
int vertScrollBarWidth =
(senderComboBox.Items.Count > senderComboBox.MaxDropDownItems)
? SystemInformation.VerticalScrollBarWidth : 0;

//Loop through list items and check size of each items.
//set the width of the drop down list to the width of the largest item.

int newWidth;
foreach (string s in ((ComboBox)sender).Items)
{
if (s != null)
{
newWidth = (int)g.MeasureString(s.Trim(), font).Width
+ vertScrollBarWidth;
if (width < newWidth)
{
width = newWidth;
}
}
}
senderComboBox.DropDownWidth = width;
}
catch (Exception objException)
{
//Catch objException
}
}

VS 2005 IDE Attempted to read or write protected memory

2006-11-06T22:49:00.000-08:00

IDE Attempted to read/write protected memory

Microsoft's BIG plans for India

2006-10-12T01:36:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's BIG plans for India- Rediff

Health Benefits of Bicycling

2006-10-10T01:30:00.000-07:00

Roper Bioscience

2006-10-07T02:57:00.000-07:00

Go to website of Roper Bioscience

Google eyes Web video site YouTube

2006-10-07T02:53:00.000-07:00

CNN-IBN Reports

Harbhajan apologises to Sikh body

2006-10-07T02:50:00.000-07:00

What CricketNext.com says

Rediff

2006-10-07T02:47:00.000-07:00

Go to Home Page

Previous instance of an application in C#

2006-07-17T05:46:00.000-07:00

How to check whether a previous instance of an application is already running in C#?

It is possible with C# to look for previous instances of an application. Here is a method.

private static bool IsPrevInstance()
{
//Find name of current process
string currentProcessName = Process.GetCurrentProcess ().ProcessName;
//Find the name of all processes having current process name
Process[] processesNamesCollection = Process.GetProcessesByName(currentProcessName);
//Check whether more than one process is running
if (processesNamesCollection.Length > 1)
return true;
else
return false;
}

Note: Process class is available in System.Diagnostics name space

How to change the color of Tab Control (in c#)

2006-07-03T06:31:00.000-07:00

Hi,
The Tab Control in .net does not expose properties to change its back ground and foreground color. This can be achieved by overriding the DrawItem event of the control. Following are the steps involved to do the same.
1. Set the TabControl's DrawMode to OwnerDraw
2. Handle the DrawItem event to draw things yourself
You may call the following method at the DrawItem event of tab control to test this.

private void ChangeTabColor(DrawItemEventArgs e)
{
Font TabFont;
Brush BackBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Green); //Set background color
Brush ForeBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Yellow);//Set foreground color
if (e.Index == this.tabControl1.SelectedIndex)
{
TabFont = new Font(e.Font, FontStyle.Italic FontStyle.Bold);
}
else
{
TabFont = e.Font;
}
string TabName = this.tabControl1.TabPages[e.Index].Text;
StringFormat sf = new StringFormat();
sf.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center;
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(BackBrush, e.Bounds);
Rectangle r = e.Bounds;
r = new Rectangle(r.X, r.Y + 3, r.Width, r.Height - 3);
e.Graphics.DrawString(TabName, TabFont, ForeBrush, r, sf);
//Dispose objects
sf.Dispose();
if (e.Index == this.tabControl1.SelectedIndex)
{
TabFont.Dispose();
BackBrush.Dispose();
}
else
{
BackBrush.Dispose();
ForeBrush.Dispose();
}
}

Pradeep is Relocating to US

2006-03-15T05:12:00.000-08:00

Today was Pradeep's last day in Tavant. He is relocating to US. He was with our team for around 2 years, it was a nice working with him. Wishing him all the best.

Today is celebrated as holi here in Bangalore. This is the festival of colors. Hope you too enjoy a colorful day:))

2006-03-15T05:11:00.000-08:00

Pradeep and Me

2006-03-15T05:10:00.000-08:00

My Team

2006-03-15T05:09:00.000-08:00

Pradeep and Vikas S

2006-03-15T05:05:00.000-08:00

Pradeep and Vineeth

2006-01-27T04:03:00.000-08:00

Tavant Roper Team

New year began....

2006-01-13T03:55:00.000-08:00

I was so busy in the new year that i could not post anything in the blog. My team is heading for a major release of our current project in the end of January and obviously lot of work. Also we had a domain training on Image processing in office. The training session were facilitated by Dr. Nagabushan and Mr. R Pradeep Kumar. Dr. Nagabushan is a famous personality in document imaging. the session was informative and cleared many doubts. We will have the remaining session after 3 weeks or so.

I registered a domain called zoomkerala.com in the first week of new year. I did not have any plan to register a domain of this kind but when i so some Kerala related sites, just searched for available domains and thought it would be better to register this domain. I hope that after some time down the line i can develop some stuffs useful for all of us.

Tavant is opening a new facility in the city. This is 3rd Facility in Bangalore which is again in Koramangala near Joythi Nivas College. We have around 30000 Sq.ft which can accommodate 350 employees in two & half floors. One of the floor 's will be opened from Monday which is in second floor of T3- SA ( Tavant -3 Salapuria Ascent), the rest will be opened in next 60 days.

Our client Jorge is reaching Bangalore in the week end for a weeks vist. He is VP application Software Development of Photometrics.

Happy New Year 2006

2005-12-30T06:32:00.000-08:00

Hi all...

Wishing you Happy and Prosperious Year 2006

Enjoy...

2005-12-30T05:13:00.000-08:00

Prakash, Shyam and Me @ Tavant on 30 Dec 2005

2005-12-30T05:12:00.000-08:00

Sony, Prakash and Shyam at Roper Bay

2005-12-30T05:09:00.000-08:00

Sony @ work station

2005-12-30T05:08:00.000-08:00

Shyam @ Tavant 30 Dec 2005

2005-12-30T05:07:00.000-08:00

Me @ office

2005-12-30T05:06:00.000-08:00

Prakash 2005 Last day @ office

Japanese IQ Test

2005-12-30T03:18:00.000-08:00

This is a hard one, but fun! Good luck!!!

Click on link then click on blue circle
http://freeweb.siol.net/danej/riverIQGame.swf

This is going to do your head in, but it can be done. Apparently,this is an IQ test given to job applicants in Japan:
"Everybody has to cross the river"
The following rules apply:
-Only 2 persons on the raft at a time
-The father cannot stay with any of the daughters without their mother's presence
-The mother cannot stay with any of the sons without their father's presence
-The thief (striped shirt) cannot stay with any family member if the policeman is not there
-Only the Father, the Mother and the Policeman know how to operatetheraft .
-To start click on the big blue circle on the right.-To move the people click on them.
-To move the raft click on the pole on the opposite side of the river.

Bangalore Attack

2005-12-29T22:34:00.000-08:00

Suicide bombers threaten major attacks in Bangalore
Suicide bombers threatened in letters sent to local media that they would target a top politician and launch attacks against New Year's revellers in the city of Bangalore, police said on Friday. A letter from a previously unknown group outlining the threatened attacks in Bangalore was faxed to several newspapers late on Thursday, the director-general of police, BS Sial, said. "It will be the most coordinated attack the country has ever seen," television channel CNN-IBN quoted the letter, written in English, as saying. Six attackers will trigger explosions including, "two human bombs to target the state chief minister," Moin-ud-Din of the Al-Jehadi group said, according to the report."Newspapers have received the letter late last night, and we are trying to find out if it is a hoax. But we will not take any chances," said Sial, without giving further details. The letters were sent a day after gunmen opened fire on Wednesday outside a prestigious science institute in Bangalore, killing a retired professor and wounding four others.
Police set up barricades, patrolled streets and continued to search cars at checkpoints on Friday across the city, hunting for the attackers, Sial said. Police suspect LeT terrorists to be behind Wednesday's attack, but no group has claimed responsibility.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1585732,0008.htm
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=60656

Staying alive in a Software job

2005-12-21T23:57:00.000-08:00

Harshad Oak -
Harshad Oak is the founder of Rightrix Solutions and the author of the three books Oracle JDeveloper 10g: Empowering J2EE Development, Pro Jakarta Commons and Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 (J2EE 1.4) Bible He can be reached at harshad at rightrix dot com

Before I started working for myself, I spent some years in some of the top IT companies in India and still have many friends working in various software companies. I wrote a blog Recruiting like crazy, about the same time last year about how Indian companies are recruiting like there's no tomorrow and the possible consequences. However I was avoiding writing this particular piece as it seems like an unpatriotic thing to do, to tell the world how bad the working conditions in software companies in India have become. And there's always the risk of excerpts being used out of context to bash up IT in India.
I am now writing this because I just keep hearing horror tales from the industry and it doesn't seem like anything is being done in the matter, so I thought I will do my bit and write.
First and foremost, before stereotypes about India kick in, I would like to clarify that I am not saying that Indian software companies are sweat shops where employees aren't being paid and made to work in cramped uncomfortable places. The pay in software companies is very good as compared to other industries in India and the work places are generally well furnished and plush offices. India being a strong democracy, freedom of expression is alive and well and Indians are free to express their opinions and voice their concerns. Yet, I say that the software industry is exploiting its employees.
IT work culture in India is totally messed up and has now started harming the work culture of the nation as a whole. Working 12+ hours a day and 6 or even 7 days a week is more the rule than the exception.
Consequences:
* A majority of IT people suffer from health problems.As most of the IT workforce is still very young, the problem isn't very obvious today but it will hit with unbearable ferocity when these youngsters get to their 40s.
* Stress levels are unbelievable high. Stress management is a cover topic in magazines and newspapers and workshops on the subject are regularly overbooked.
* Most IT people have hardly any social / family life to talk of.
* As IT folk are rich by Indian standards, they try to buy their way out of their troubles and have incurred huge debts by buying expensive houses, gizmos and fancy cars.
Plush offices, fat salaries and latest gizmos can give you happiness only if you have a life in the first place.
The reason I feel this culture has emerged, is the servile attitude of the companies. Here's a tip for any company in the west planning to outsource to India. If you feel that a project can be completed in 6 weeks by 4 people, always demand that it be completed in 2 weeks by 3 people.
Guess what, most Indian companies will agree. The project will then be hyped up as an "extremely critical" one and the 3 unfortunate souls allocated to it will get very close to meeting the almighty by the time they deliver the project in 2 weeks. Surprisingly, they will deliver in 2-3 weeks, get bashed up for any delays and the company will soon boast about how they deliver good quality in reasonable time and cost. Has anyone in India ever worked on a project that wasn't "extremely critical"?
I was once at a session where a top boss of one of India's biggest IT firms was asked a question about what was so special about their company and his answer was that we are the "Yes" people with the "We Can Do It " attitude. It is all very well for the top boss to say "We Can Do It ".. what about the project teams who wish to say "Please....We Can't Do It " to the unreasonable timelines...I was tempted to ask "What death benefits does your company offer to the teams that get killed in the process?". I sure was ashamed to see that a fellow Indian was openly boasting about the fact that he and his company had no backbone. The art of saying No or negotiating reasonable time frames for the team is very conspicuous by its absence. Outsourcing customers more often than not simply walk all over Indian software companies. The outsourcer surely cannot be blamed as it is right for him to demand good quality in the least cost and time. Exhaustion = Zero Innovation
* How many Indians in India are thought leaders in their software segment? - Very few
* How much software innovation happens in India? - Minimal
* Considering that thousands of Indians in India use Open Source software, how many actually contribute? - Very few
Surprisingly, put the same Indian in a company "in" the US and he suddenly becomes innovative and a thought leader in his field. The reason is simple, the only thing an exhausted body and mind can do well, is sleep. zzzzzz
I can pretty much bet on it that we will never see innovation from any of 10000+ person code factories in India.
If you are someone sitting in the US, UK... and wondering why the employees can't stand up, that's the most interesting part of the story.
The Problem
The software professional Indian is today making more money in a month than what his parents might have made in an year. Very often a 21 year old newbie software developer makes more money than his/her 55 year old father working in an old world business. Most of these youngsters are well aware of this gap and so work under an impression that they are being paid an unreasonable amount of money. They naturally equate unreasonable money with unreasonable amount of work.
Another important factor is this whole bubble that an IT person lives in.. An IT professional walks with a halo around his or her head. They are the Cool, Rich Gen Next .. the Intelligentsia of the New World... they travel all over the world, vacation at exotic locations abroad, talk "american", are more familiar of the geography of the USA than that of India and yes of course, they are the hottest things in the Wedding Market!!!
This I feel is the core problem because if employees felt they were being exploited, things would change.
I speak about this to some of my friends and the answer is generally "Hey Harshad, what you say is correct and we sure are suffering, but why do you think we are being paid this much money? It's not for 40 hours but for 80 hours a week. And anyway what choice do we have? It's the same everywhere."
So can we make things change? Is there a way to try and stop an entire generation of educated Indians from ending up with "no life". Solutions
1) Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.
Recently, in an awards ceremony at a software company, the manager handing over the "employee of the month" award said something like "It's unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working".. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.
Companies need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the time difference between India and the west is the reason why people need to stay in office for 14 hours a day. Staying late should be a negative thing that should work against an employee in his appraisals. Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week .
2) Estimates:
If time estimates go wrong, the company should be willing to take a hit and not force the employee to work crazy hours to bail projects out of trouble. This will ensure that the estimates made for the next project are more real and not just what the customer has asked for.
3) Employee organizations / forums
NASSCOM (National Association for Software and Services Companies) and CSI (Computer Society Of India) are perhaps the only two well known software associations in India and both I feel have failed the software employee. I do not recall any action from these organizations to try and improve the working conditions of software employees. This has to change.
I am not in favor of forming trade unions for software people, as trade unions in India have traditionally been more effective at ruining businesses and making employees inefficient than getting employees their rights and helping business do well. So existing bodies like NASSCOM should create and popularize employee welfare cells at a state / regional level and these cells should work only for employee welfare and not be puppets in the hands of the companies.
If the industry does not itself create proper forums for employee welfare, it's likely that the government / trade unions will interfere and mess up India's sunshine industry.
4) Narayan Murthys please stand up
Top bosses of companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc. need to send the message loud and clear to their company and to other companies listening at national IT events that employee welfare is really their top concern and having good working culture and conditions is a priority. Employee welfare here does not mean giving the employee the salary he/she dreams of.
Last word
I am sure some of my thoughts come from the fact that I too worked in such an environment for a few years and perhaps I haven't got over the frustrations I experienced back then.
So think about my views with a pinch of salt but do think about it. And if you have an opinion on this issue, don't forget to add a comment to this article. --

BPO rape, murder clouds Bangalore

2005-12-21T02:34:00.000-08:00

BANGALORE, DECEMBER 16: The rape and murder of a call centre employee, a 24-year-old woman, by a person pretending to be the late night driver of her company transport has sent a chill down the spine of the BPO industry in Bangalore.
On December 13, newly wed Pratibha, an employee of HP Globalsoft, located at the Electronics City, went missing. She was picked up at 1.50 am (for her 2.30 am shift) from her residence at Kumaraswamy Layout, nearly 25 km from her office, by a driver claiming to be a substitute. On Friday morning, after the police tracked down the driver using Pratibha’s cell phone records they found her body dumped in a grove on the outskirts of Bangalore.
Police investigations have revealed that the 28-year-old accused Shivakumar, one of 60 drivers from SRS Transport which services HP Globalsoft, called Pratibha on her mobile phone on the evening of December 13 to tell her that he would be coming to pick her up in place of her regular driver Jagadish.
An unsuspecting Pratibha agreed and was seen off by her mother-in-law boarding the vehicle driven by Shivakumar. Minutes later Pratibha’s regular vehicle arrived at her home and found that she had already been picked up. When the regular driver, Jagadish, called Pratibha on her cell phone to verify, she informed him that she had already been picked up and handed the cell phone to Shivakumar who told Jagadish that he had been asked to pick up Pratibha.
Jagadish informed the time office at HP that Pratibha had been picked up by vehicle number 405 the number provided by Shivakumar. According to statements given to the police by Shivakumar, since his nabbing on Thursday night, he took Pratibha to a desolate place on the Kanakapura Road, leading out of Bangalore, raped her at knife-point, and killed her.
Prathiba who got married in February this year had been employed with HP Globalsoft for the past six months.
From Shivakumar’s mobile phone records, the police have found that he had also called two other girls the same night with the same story. The girls, however, refused to board his vehicle after they reportedly checked with the company and found that no replacement was being sent.
Unfortunately, it seems like this girl was completely unsuspecting of the trap she had fallen into, said deputy commissioner of police Alok Kumar. Shivakumar, in his statement to the police, has reportedly said that he committed the crime because he had not had sex since his wife’s pregnancy. This has been a most unfortunate incident. It has nothing to do with the company. It is a stray, one-off incident. We are trying to strengthen the security for our employees in consultation with the police, said HP Globalsoft’s CEO Som Mittal.

Interaction- B' Gates and N' Murthy

2005-12-16T04:28:00.000-08:00

We been to Palace Ground, Bangalore to attend the launch of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 by BILL GATES. It was really a great event to see the great man in front of us. Also i did catch the interaction with Mr. Bill and Narayana Murthy by Prannoy Roy in NDTV. The later event was as follows.( as forwarded by a friend)

Amity Business SchoolSYNOPSIS OF DISCUSSIONSBETWEENBILL GATESCHAIRMAN, MICROSOFT CORPORATION&NARAYANA MURTHYCHIEF MENTOR, INFOSYSINTERVIEWEDBYPRANNOY ROYNDTVDECEMBER 7, 2005TAJ PALACE, NEW DELHIAmity Business School

PRANNOY ROY : To me and many of us at TiE, it is a special moment. We have with us together two icons of our times - Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Narayana Murthy. Both iconic entrepreneurs, but in fact both much more than that. As you look into their livesthere are so many similarities. Like both started life as hardcore software guys. Mr. Bill Gates wrote the basic compiler and Mr. Murthy, in the early 70s, also wrote the first basic compiler. Both today have given up being CEOs and taken a step back to help with the bigger kind of picture with bigger vision. Both of them have superb right hand people i.e: Steve Ballmer and Nandan Nilekani. Both have huge businesses but even larger social goals with larger hearts. Both have wives, Melinda and Sudha, who infact are even more committed to changing society, to philanthropy and charity. As icons they have to resisttremendous pressures, sometimes to enter politics. Both remarkable men, that come once in a lifetime, once in a generation. Both used to travel economy class, some say they were stingy, for some it is about principles. If it is stingy, certainly it is not visible in their charity. Ironically both are voracious readers, books are their passion. One major similarity - both really believe in spreading wealth among their employees through ESOPs but now both have stopped that and the list of their similarities is endless.
PRANNOY ROY : What are the defining moments in your life?
BILL GATES : Certainly the opportunity to use a computer at young age, I was only 13 at that time and I was 16 when I first understood the magic of chips with double power every two years. The school teacher asked me to teach computer to the class. That was when I got fascinated and completely immersed. My decision to leave school and start a company, that’s a nice milestone since it worked. In my case I thought the time was very important to get in and be the very first. So this chip computer comes out and I decided to go to Paul Allen and provide the software for the very first personal computer, whichagain was incredibly limited. The willingness to take the risk before anybody else was doing it, I think that was a big help to us. My parents thought that I was going on leave and will come back as the company will not succeed, even Harvard was nice enough to say that I could come back and even today they are willing to take me back.
NARAYANA MURTHY : There have been atleast three defining moments in my life. First when I was incarcenated in Bulgaria, a communist country and without food and water for 96 hours. Later I decided that I don’t want to be a part of this system and I will go back to India to pursue entrepreneurship and create wealth legally and ethically. Second was in 1990, we had started the company in 1981. It didn’t progress because there was so much of friction in business in India. There was an offer from somebody to acquire us for $1mn, from this offer six of my group members got excited but towards the end I decided that I am not going to sell it off. Amity Business School Third was frankly getting listed on NASDAQ. In fact it was a small step for NASDAQ but a giant leap for Infosys and Indian software industry. I would say that these were the three defining moments in my life.
PRANNOY ROY : How do you keep yourself motivated to work on and on and on?
BILL GATES : I love my work, I get to work with smart people and it’s a field that’s constantly changing. Every couple of year’s people say that a new company will throw you out of the business and we get to show people “not this time”. My vision was not about sales or profits but it was about this computer, what it could do and we don’t have that computer yet. We cannot talk to the machine and it cannot talk to us and we are still looking for that computer. I have a dream of having a computer in every home, in every desk. We are not even half way in achieving that goal, here in India we are scratching the surface. So there is still lot of work to be done as there is no finish line anywhere near.
NARAYANA MURTHY : Most passionate people in the world are held by larger goals. At Infosys, we have a vision to become a globally respected organization, not only in India but also in US, Japan, Germany, Australia UK and that’s still a long marathon. Maybe 10,000 or 12,000 Infosysians have already made some money but there are 30,000 other Infosysians who still have to make that kind of money and it is our responsibility to give our best, our commitment to make sure that they and future Infosysians can make money.
PRANNOY ROY : Both of you started ESOPs and both of you have given it up. Why?
BILL GATES : Microsoft shared more wealth than any other company has in the history of capitalism. If you get to a point where industry is so hot, it almost hyped then you start to get deviations that not only go up but they also fluctuate, so to pass the risk of those market conditions on to the employees may not be right. But we are actually into shares now where you get your salary and shares of stock and so we cut the variance down and so the predictability is much greater and still plenty of personal wealth. We are still sharing the wealth but in a different way and it wasn’t to do anything with the newaccounting principles.
NARAYANA MURTHY : I always believed that leadership does not succeed in a vacuum, you need people who are smarter than you, who have same or higher level of passion and energy. If you want to bring those people on board then you need someequitable paradigm and that is why Infosys adopted the ESOPs model. We suspended it because we have to expense it out according to US regulations and then we realized that it is not the best model for us anymore. And then as it was pointed out, we made an analysis and found that by creating a paper or variable performance model, we will be able to provide a decent compensation for all. Amity Business School
PRANNOY ROY : India has got a new energy with Democracy as its foundation.
People have started questioning. Is democracy important in taking businessdecisions?
BILL GATES : Democracy means right way of looking at resources. It is the real commitment to the future. It is a must and we, US, stand for it.
NARAYANA MURTHY : We value knowledge as the most intangible asset. However, the important question now is, Is it really paying? There has to be a greater premium on time. We waste lot much of it in discussions. One of my friends from Harvard aptly quoted, Two of my greatest challenges are – How to get my Japanese students to speak up and Indian students to shut up”. We have to come to conclusion out of discussions and get to execution.
PRANNOY ROY : Does a anti-American wave affect you? Lack of US sensitivity in handling international affairs to the world issues affects your relationships with your partners.
BILL GATES : The world depends on the US to do certain things right whether it is funding science or whether setting a good example for free trade. I won’t say we lost business or have some impact it is because of the US politics. Everybody resents the most successful country and everybody loves the most successful country. It is all the love-hate relationship. In the US there are mixed feelings about what they think the US is doing good and not doing well. It is for the world to understand the benefits of free trade system. The US should be imitated by others. The way we run our university system should be learnt by everyone. We stand for – Be good in every way, innovation in products, markets, etc. People talk of India versus China, why not India plus China. India should learn from China and China should learn from India. I am proponent of the combined best practices of India, China and the US.
PRANNOY ROY : Does the use of force by US in international affairs worry you?
BILL GATES : It is best to use when the stake is very dramatic. Even in US, people say we need more evidence (in Iraq issue) but then for us it is good, for it is for the democracy.
PRANNOY ROY : Is it love-hate relationship? Even we say “Yankee go home, but take me with you
NARAYANA MURTHY : I am unabashed admirer of US for their openness. I don’t know of any other society as open as the US. It is for us to work harder to convince the US people, decision makers, law makers, that there is good value for them (in Amity Business School outsourcing). If there is an outcry, dissatisfaction, I see it as our failure. ‘The day you say market is wrong, you are finished’, this should be learnt by US.
PRANNOY ROY : Now we will take some of the questions from the audience.
A1. My question is for Mr. Narayana Murthy. What challenges are faced by large and small companies in attracting, keeping and retaining best talent?
NARAYANA MURTHY : It is all about creating the dream and vision and articulating that everybody is able to take the rainbow and put in pocket. It is all about making sure that people will get their value, people will automatically come to you.
A2. My question is for Mr. Bill Gates. After the internet, what technology will take the world now?
BILL GATES : We need to get a device which will get us value at the low cost. Like speech recognition, mapping devices etc. I see natural interface technology as the important area that shall dominate the sphere.
A3. My question is for Mr. Bill Gates. What human qualities are important for success?
BILL GATES : You need passion, intelligence and some kind of integrity to understand what your limits are. Very strong combination of all the three shall help to achieve success.
A4. My question is for Mr. Narayana Murthy. Very large companies are created in US. What do we need to do to have the same in India?
NARAYANA MURTHY : We need a more competitive market. Corporations have to realize the importance of innovation, good venture capital system, environment that enhances the quality of education system that focuses on problem solving and good set of mentoring who will take care of entrepreneurs’ linkages with the requisite networks.
BILL GATES : We always talk big companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, etc. We don’t think of numerous companies that fail. It is all market economy that survives.
A5. My question is for Mr. Bill Gates. What is the fundamental difference between managing a startup and a large corporation?
BILL GATES : The leadership styles are quite different. When the companies grow, you acquire skill sets, create a system, take a step back, monitor the people and manage the managers. Amity Business School
PRANNOY ROY : The last question - Will you ever enter into politics?
BILL GATES : No
NARAYANA MURTHY : No
PRANNOY ROY: Thank you very much.
Compiled by: Dr. Sanjeev Prashar - Associate Professor – Marketing, AmityBusiness School

Deserve Befor You Desire

2005-12-12T00:16:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from an HR article in THE ACHIEVER- Round-Table
The grass isn't always greener on the other side!! Move from one job to another, but only for the right reasons. It's yet another day at office. As I logged on to the marketing and advertising sites for the latest updates, as usual, I found the headlines dominated by 'who's' moving from one company to another after a short stint', and I wondered, why are so many people leaving one job for another? Is it passé now to work with just one company for a sufficiently long period?
Whenever I ask this question to people who leave a company, the answers I get
are: "Oh, I am getting a 200% hike in salary"; "Well I am jumping three levels in my designation"; "Well they are going to send me abroad in six months".
Then, I look around at all the people who are considered successful today and who have reached the top - be it a media agency, an advertising agency or a company. I find that most of these people are the ones who stuck to the company, ground their heels and worked their way to the top. And, as I look around for people who change their jobs constantly, I find they have stagnated at some level, in obscurity.
In this absolute ruthless, dynamic and competitive environment, there are still no - short cuts to success or to making money. The only thing that continues to pay, as earlier is loyalty and hard work. Yes, it pays!
Sometimes, immediately, sometimes after a lot of time. But, it does pay.
Does this mean that one should stick to an organization and wait for the golden moment? Of course not. After, a long stint, there always comes a time for moving in most organisations, but it is important to move for the right reasons, rather than the superficial ones, like money, designation or oversees trip.
Remember, no company recruits for charity. More often than not, when you are offered an unseemly hike in salary or designation that is disproportionate to what the company offers it current employees, there is always an unseemly bait attached. The result? You will, in the long term have reached the same level or may be lower levels than what you would have in your current company.
A lot of people leave their organisations because they are 'unhappy'. What is this so called unhappiness? I have been working for donkey years and there has never been a day when I am not unhappy about something in my work environment - boss, rude colleagues, fussy clients etc.
Unhappiness in at work place, to a large extent, is transient. If you look hard enough, there is always something to be unhappy about. But, more importantly, do I come to work to be "happy" in the truest sense? If I think hard, the answer is "No". Happiness is something you find with family, friends, may be a close circle of colleagues who have become friends. What you come to work for is to earn, build a reputation, satisfy your ambitions, be appreciated for your work ethics, face challenges and get the job done.
So, the next time you are tempered to move on, ask yourself why are you moving and what are you moving into?
Some questions are:
* Am I ready and capable of handling the new responsibility? If yes, what could be the possible reasons my current company has not offered me the same responsibility? * Who are the people who currently handle this responsibility in the current and new company? Am I good as the best among them? * As the new job offer has a different profile, why have I not given the current company the option to offer me this profile? * Why is the new company offering the new job? Do they want me for my skills, or is that ulterior motive?
An honest answer to these will eventually decide where you go in your career
- to the top of the pile in the long term (at the cost of short - term
blips) or to become another average employee who gets lost with the time in wilderness?
"DESERVE BEFORE YOU DESIRE"

Quote from a GE Executive
"Every day for the last four months I have been hiring. I come to office each day, hassle my recruitment team, agencies and consultancies for resumes, perform interviews, negotiate salaries and make offers. It's amazing to see how people negotiate for salaries and perks, no one asks anything anymore about what the job entails, what they can contribute, or how they can grow and realize their dreams here.
It's about pay, and people are eagerly willing to display unbridled stupidity in managing their careers by focusing incessantly on money. Heck, the time it takes to finalize an offer nowadays, I could send out an offer letter, go have several children, watch them grow, put them through school and then head back to office, the candidate is likely to have finished negotiating his pay and ready to join.
This is all fine and dandy; it's a hyper-inflationary job market. What's disturbing is the not-so-new trend of IT jobs flying out of India. I hear an 850-seater call center has decided to move out of India due to attrition and increasing costs. Hell, my own company has pushed out 100 jobs out of India into Eastern Europe, and I was part of that decision. We need to wake up and smell the stink of the decay we are creating all around us in the IT job market. Year-on-year end people here expect nothing less than 30 to 45% salary increases, where as the average salary hike in the US per year is 3% and Eastern Europe is 4%.
I could go on and on about the quality of the flotsam and jetsam that washes on to my desk in response to job ads, but we all know it. Sometimes it takes as many as 40+ interviews to close one position. Sad part? The bozos still think they are worth it.
At this rate IT India better ensure they have transferable skills, because in a couple of years from now they will not have jobs to feed their money-frenzied lifestyles.
Let's do justice to the lessons the dotcom tried to teach us, what goes up must come down."

Apartment Pooja

2005-12-11T21:22:00.000-08:00

Sunday, 11 Decmber was a milestone in our life. The 'pooja' and Griha Pravesha (House warming) of our new flat was due this day. Ganapathy pooja started at 5 am, long for an hour and Griha Pravesha at 9:15 am. Our parents only attended the ceremony. My college mate Anoop also done pooja same day same time, both apartments in same building. We are planning to move in to new place by January.

Congratulations to Anoop, our families and me!!!

We decided to do the pooja now even tough we will be moving in January only as next one month time is not good for auspicious event like house warming.

KBC Claims Pati !

2005-12-02T01:03:00.000-08:00

New Delhi-
The tremendously popular TV game show,"Kaun Banega Crore Pati" claimed its victim in the capital. Mrs Neelam Arora, utterly disgusted with her husband's inability to answer the simplest of questions, divorced him immediately after the end of the show. The entire event has shaken the capital to the core and has left the local populace in a state of daze. Mrs Neelam Arora, when contacted, was all fire and fury. "How can you stay married to a dumb brick who cannot answer even the first 1000 Rupees question? Even a 6 year old can answer such questions, but my husband, I mean, my ex-husband *%$#@&*(unprintable) couldn't do it.
That's why; I called a lawyer immediately and filed divorce papers." She also added that all her friends and relatives supported her move. She also dismissed the suggestion that her husband, for motives best known to him, could have deliberately flunked the question. Mr. Pankaj Arora, a property dealer in one of the colonies of East Delhi, was happy when he got the news from the Star TV network that he had got selected, one among millions, for participating in the popular show and he considered himself lucky to be so chosen. He was also told to bring his wife along to the studios at Mumbai where the game shows were to be hosted by Mr Amitabh Bachhan. Winning a crore was hardly in the mind of Mr Arora and all Mr Pankaj Arora wanted to do there was to gape at his idol and may be he thought he could try to sell him a few of the plots of his clients to Amitabh at a small tidy margin. But Mrs Arora was made of sterner stuff.
Mrs Neelam Arora, ever the ambitious wife, now took charge of her indolent husband. She hired the best tutor from Sachdev Tutorials, made him learn all the countries and capitals in the world, currencies of different countries, names of different states, rivers, towns in the country etc. After 3 weeks of gruelling schedule of cramming, Mr Arora and Mrs Arora confidently embarked on their journey to Mumbai, little knowing that the game show was to change their lives forever. Mr Arora was one among the 10 hopefuls selected for the 'fastest finger first' event.
Amitabh appeared in flesh and blood and Mr Pankaj Arora, whose lifetime ambition, was to see his childhood hero in person, felt a sense of fulfillment and pressed some buttons in a hurry. Mr Arora couldn't believe it! Mrs Neelam Arora felt like a mother whose favourite kid had won the best baby show. Not only had he given correct answers, but he had done so even before others could begin!
There was a hubbub around the auditorium as Mr Pankaj Arora gingerly took the seat from Amitabh for everyone was convinced that history was going to be made that day. There was suspense in the air and the audience could sense money floating all around them. Amitabh Bachhan started the show by smiling benignly at the nervous Mr Arora, the kind of smile he would give to a ABCL investor, clapped his hands and read out the question. "Mr Pankaj Arora, yehi hai aap ka pehla sawaal. Who wrote 'Valmiki Ramayan'? The choices are A. Tulsidas B. Ramanand Sagar C. B R Chopra D. Valmiki?" Mr Pankaj Arora very promptly said, "Ramanand Sagar!". He had not forgotten the days when he used to get up early on Sundays solely to watch the epic. Amitabh again smiled the benign smile, cajoled him to use his lifeline, audience poll etc., but Mr Pankaj Arora, like a true blue property dealer, didn't budge from his position. He later told everyone sobbingly that he wanted to preserve the lifelines for using them after touching the 25 lac mark Amitabh commiserated with him and told a shocked Mr Arora that his answer was wrong. The pin-drop silence that followed immediately was only to be broken by loud angry shriek from a female, that evidently from a female, who had been done in by her husband.
She shouted immediately, "Is there a lawyer in the house?".
Before the pandemonium that broke out could settle in, Mr Arora and Mrs Arora had parted ways as husband and wife. This event has caused great sensation among the community of TV viewers and the effect has been electric among the chronic followers of this game show. Whether this 'wife-divorcing-husband -for-flunking-the-first- question' event, will drive away all husbands from the show or pull them with magnetic attraction to the greatest TV game show ever, only time alone can tell

A Quick Home Visit

2005-12-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

We went home last week. I had not planned the journey in advance and had a tough time to get the tickets. We had to attend a marriage function at Trivandrum, which we decided to make it last minute. My colleague Pradeep helped me in getting a ticket for Friday evening. I was in search of ticket from Thursday evening through agents and friends end up in hearing all buses are full. But luckily got 2 tickets.
The journey was hectic. The bus met with an accident at 3 am at Palghat. The bus should be at a speed of 70-80 KM/hour hit an auto rikshaw, which quickly entered the main road in front of the bus from a side road. Even though the driver tried to save the bus by quickly steering to right side of the road that did not help. The guys in auto were taken into hospital; the police arrived and cleared the road after 10-15 minutes.
We reached brides house by noon, three hours late. It was a nice time meeting relatives and of course the wedding ceremony. We left to home on Sunday after noon. Stayed home for a day. It's a very special feeling being at home with parents. I went to temple on Monday morning, usual routine whenever i go home. I met couple of my school friends. That was a nostalgic moment hearing from them after quite some time. We stared to Bangalore on Monday evening and reached here on Tuesday morning.

The trip was good though the journey was hectic.

Back in work...going on....

Brain Damaging Habits

2005-11-22T02:37:00.000-08:00

1. No Breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

2. Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered, increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain

The main causes of liver damage are:
1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are main cause.
2. Not urinating in the morning.
3. Too much eating.
4. Skipping breakfast.
5. Consuming too much medication.
6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.
7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.
8. Consuming raw (overly done) foods also add to the burden of liver. Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

Health - Recognizing a stroke!

2005-11-14T01:02:00.000-08:00

The follwing is an email receied from a friend of mine. Hope this would be of some help for every one.

Maybe you are in perfect Health to bother about this. But then, you may have an opportunity to save a family member, friend or stranger.

During a outdoor dinner at a seaside resort near Chennai, a friend
stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Lakshmi (name changed) went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.

Her husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm, Ingrid passed away). She had suffered a stroke at the dinner- had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke perhaps Lakshmi would be alive today.

It only takes a minute to read this:

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed and getting to the patient within 3 hours which is tough. There is nothing more life saving than getting the patient to the hospital in the FIRST ONE HOUR! The Golden Hour it is now known as to Doctors and emergency attendents alike!

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Remember the "3" steps. Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple
questions:

1. *Ask the individual to SMILE.

2. *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

3. *Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. . . It is sunny out today). If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call emergency immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
BE A FRIEND AND SHARE THIS ARTICLE WITH AS MANY FRIENDS AS POSSIBLE, you could save their lives.

Keyboard-Mouse & shoulder Muscles

2005-11-08T01:31:00.000-08:00

I was suffering from a kind of shoulder pain for past few days. I thought this might be happening following stress the due to exercise. Even though i stayed away from exercise for couple of days the pain in shoulder did not cure. I cleaned up the mouse though i did not have much dust accumulated on the rollers to induct uneasiness in using it. I searched the net to get some tips about better arm, shoulder and wrist positions while using mouse and keyboard. I came across the following docs, hope this will be of some help for all of us.

Tips for Using a Computer Mouse

Posture Issues with Keyboard/Mouse Use

Rotate a Word :)

2005-11-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

I was looking for a way to print text on user control with vertical alignment. I thought i can easily achieve it. But the challenging part of the job was that the text need to be rotated 90 degrees or 270 degrees rather than just printing each character in text one below the other.

Any way i could reach the goal using the Windows API, CreateFontIndirect. Primarily this function creates a logical font that has the characteristics specified in the specified structure. The font can subsequently be selected as the current font for any device context.

A text can be rotated through any angle using this API. A really useful one while you print text on user controls with vertical alignment.

The function declaration is as follows:

Private Declare Function CreateFontIndirect Lib "gdi32" Alias "CreateFontIndirectA" (lpLogFont As LOGFONT) As Long

pLogFont Points to a LOGFONT structure that defines the characteristics of the logical font.

If the function succeeds, the return value is a handle to a logical font. If the function fails, the return value is NULL.

Create a type as below.

Private Type LOGFONT
lfHeight As Long
lfWidth As Long
lfEscapement As Long
lfOrientation As Long
lfWeight As Long
lfItalic As Byte
lfUnderline As Byte
lfStrikeOut As Byte
lfCharSet As Byte
lfOutPrecision As Byte
lfClipPrecision As Byte
lfQuality As Byte
lfPitchAndFamily As Byte
lfFaceName(LF_FACESIZE) As Byte
End Type

Then change the Escapement to rotate font (too bad they did not call it rotation so it could be found in a search). Then create a new font the same as current font but rotated. Now select the font n the Form's device context and now the texts printed will be rotated through angle set at lfEscapement.

Bresenham's Line Algorithm

2005-11-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

On a computer screen, the pixels indicating a slanted line are selected with Bresenham's algorithm, developed in 1962 while at IBM.

Couple of useful links are here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bresenham
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/group/goa/mallinnus/lines/bresenh.html

Create Controls on the fly...

2005-10-28T04:54:00.000-07:00

Create Controls at Run time in VB6

You can create a control at run time in vb6 and add it to a form. But to do this you should be aware of the progid of the control to be created. ProgIDs are defined as direct sub keys of the top-level HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key in the registry. You set the properties of the controls once it is created.

The following function creates a Label object and add it to a form.

Public Sub addLabel(frmCurrent As Form)
Dim lblFoo As Label

Set lblFoo = frmCurrent.Controls.Add("VB.Label", "lblFoo")

With lblFoo
.Left = 100
.Top = 100
.Caption = "Just Created"
.Visible = True
End With
End Sub

Load Controls at Run time in VB6

To add controls at run time, there must already be at least one instance of the control on the form and it must be part of a control array.

When the program runs, you add additional controls with the Load statement: Load ControlName(Index).

ControlName refers to the Name property of the control array you created and Index is the Index property of the new control. You should start at 1 because Index 0 is already taken by the control you placed on the form at design time.

Each control that you add in this way initially has the same properties as the original control. You'll have to position the control to prevent all the added controls from displaying at the same position on screen and set visible property to True.

Diwali - The Festival of Light

2005-10-28T03:10:00.000-07:00

Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is celebrated with enthusiasm and gaiety. The festival is celebrated by all people viz young and old, rich and poor, across the nation to dispel darkness and light up their lives. This festival is celebrated differently in every states in their own way. symbolizes unity in diversity. However Diwali is not widely celebrated in Kerala unlike the neighbours Tamilnadu and Karnataka but widely celebrated in North India.

Aswayuja Bahula Chaturdasi kick starts the four day festival and concludes on Kartika Shudda Vijiya. The first day of this festival marks the vanquishing of the demon Naraka by Lord Krishna and his wife Satyabhama.

People believe as said it in 'Puranas' that Naraka, son of Bhudevi, acquired enormous power from Lord Brahma after a severe penance. He then unleashed a reign of terror in the kingdom of Kamarupa, harassing celestial beings with his unconquerable might. The celestial beings pleaded with Lord Krishna to save them from his torture once they were unable to bear the tyranny of the demon. But Naraka could not be easily killed as he had a boon that he would face death only at the hands of his mother Bhudevi. So, Krishna asks his wife Satyabhama, the reincarnation of Bhudevi, to be his charioteer in the battle with Naraka. Then Krishna started fight with Naraka. When Krishna feigns unconsciousness after being hit by an arrow of Naraka, Satyabhama takes the bow and aims the arrow at Naraka, killing him instantly. Later Lord Krishna reminds her of the boon she had sought as Bhudevi.

The slaying of Naraka by Sathyabhama could also be taken to interpret that parents should not hesitate to punish their children when they stray on to the wrong path.

The second day is Amavasya when Lakshmi puja is performed. It is believed that on this day Goddess Lakshmi would be in her benevolent mood and fulfill the wishes of her devotees. One version says that it was on this day that Goddess Lakshmi emerged from Kshira Sagara (Ocean of Milk) when the Gods and demons were churning the sagara (ocean) for nectar (Amrit)

Third day - Actual Diwali day, is celebrated on the third day of the festival, when the moon completely wanes and total darkness sets in the night sky. It is in this darkness, that Diwali finds its true expression. On this day people worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and express their gratitude for previous favors.

The fourth day is referred to as "Yama Dvitiya." On this day, sisters invite their brothers to their homes.

However, in the northern part of India it is celebrated as the return of Ram along with Sita and Lakshman from his 14 years of exile after killing Ravana. To commemorate his return to Ayodhya, his subjects illuminated the kingdom and burst crackers.

Happy Diwali...Greetings...

BMP Image Format

2005-10-27T03:44:00.000-07:00

The BMP file format is the standard for a Windows 3.0 or later DIB(device independent bitmap) file.

A BMP file contains the following data structures:

HEADER bmfh;
INFOHEADER bmih;
RGBQUAD aColors[];
BYTE aBitmapBits[];

HEADER contains some information about the bitmap file. INFOHEADER contains information about the bitmap such as size, colors. The RGBQUAD array contains a color table. The rest is the image data, which format is specified by the bmih structure.

You can explore more about this and sample codes at
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/dataformats/bmp/
and
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/gdi/bitmaps_2h6a.asp

BMI - Body Mass Index

2005-10-27T02:55:00.000-07:00

BMI measures your height/weight ratio. It is your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters.

BMI = Weight/(Height * Height) where Weight & Height measured in SI system

For instance, if your height is 1.70 meters, the divisor of the calculation will be (1.70 * 1.70) = 2.89. If you weigh 64.0 kilograms, then your BMI is 22.14 (64.0 / 2.89).

Significance of BMI Values is as follows.

18.5 or less Underweight
18.5 - 24.9 Normal
25.0 - 29.9 Overweight
30.0 - 34.9 Obese
35.0 - 39.9 Obese
40 or greater Extremely Obese

Above all, don’t Worry, Be Happy. It’s unhealthy to have anxiety over a less-than-perfect body image. If BMI description of your body seems wrong for you, just trust your own judgment.

A healthy mental attitude is just as important as physical fitness

Pascal's Triangle

2005-10-27T01:08:00.000-07:00

The r th element of Pascal's Triangle at n th row is computed as

m = n!/(r!*(n-r)!)

Typical o/p would be
1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1

A typical program to print Pascal's Triangle developed in c goes as below.

#include
extern long fact(int n);
void PascalsTriangle()
{
int n,r,i;
long m;

n=r=i=0;
m=1;

printf("Enter the no. of rows required");
scanf("%d",&n);

for(i=0; i< n;i++)
{
for(r=0;r<=i;r++)
{
m = fact(i)/(fact(r) * fact(i-r));
printf("%4d",m);
}
printf("\n");
}
}

/*Function: Factorial
Use: This would return the factorial of the number passed.*/

long fact(int n)
{
long f;
f=n;

if(n<=1)
return (1);

while (n>1)
{
f=f*(n-1);
n--;
}
return (f);
}

Love is like that...

2005-10-26T21:53:00.000-07:00

A Nice Article By Swami Vivekananda...

I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me.
Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she
filled the palm of her hand with some water and held it
before me, and said this:
"You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It
symbolizes Love."
This was how I saw it:
As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to
remain there, it will always be there. However, if you
attempt to close your fingers round it and try to posses it,
it will spill through the first cracks it finds
This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet
love...they try to posses it, they
demand, they expect... and just like the water spilling out
of your hand, love
will retrieve from you. For love is meant to be free, you
cannot change its nature. If there are people you love, allow
them to be free beings.
Give and don't expect.
Advise, but don't order.
Ask, but never demand.
It might sound simple, but it is a lesson that may take a
lifetime to truly practice. It is the secret to true love. To
truly practice it, you must sincerely feel no expectations
from those who you love, and yet an unconditional caring."
Passing thought...
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take; but by
the moments that take our breath away.....
Life is beautiful!!!
Live it !!!

Stretching Exercises

2005-10-26T03:29:00.000-07:00

The following are examples of dynamic stretching and mobility exercises, which could form part of the warm up program in a training session. The dynamic exercises you incorporate into your warm up program should be appropriate to the movements you would experience in your sport/event. In all the exercises breathe easily whilst performing them.

The Exercises
Joint Rotations
From a standing position with your arms hanging loosely at you sides, flex, extend, and rotate each of the following joints:
Fingers, Wrist, Elbows, Shoulders, Neck, Trunk and shoulder blades, Hips, Knees, Ankles, Feet and toes

Neck Mobility
Flexion/Extension - Tuck your chin into your chest, and then lift your chin upward as far as possible. 6 to 10 repetitions Lateral Flexion - lower your left ear toward your left shoulder and then your right ear to your right shoulder. 6 to 10 repetitions Rotation - Turn your chin laterally toward your left shoulder and then rotate it toward your right shoulder. 6 to 10 repetitions

Shoulder Circles
Stand tall, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent Raise your right shoulder towards your right ear, take it backwards, down and then up again to the ear in a smooth action Repeat with the other shoulder.

Arm Swings
Stand tall, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent Keep the back straight at all times Overhead/Down and back - Swing both arms continuously to an overhead position and then forward, down, and backwards. 6 to 10 repetitions Side/Front Crossover - Swing both arms out to your sides and then cross them in front of your chest. 6 to 10 repetitions

Side Bends
Stand tall with good posture, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, hands resting on hips Lift your trunk up and away from your hips and bend smoothly first to one side, then the other, avoiding the tendency to lean either forwards or backwards Repeat the whole sequence sixteen times with a slow rhythm, breathing out as you bend to the side, and in as you return to the centre.

Hip circles and twists
Circles - With your hands on your hips and feet spread wider than your shoulders, make circles with your hips in a clockwise direction for 10 to 12 repetitions. Then repeat in a counter clockwise direction Twists - Extend your arms out to your sides, and twist your torso and hips to the left, shifting your weight on to the left foot. Then twist your torso to the right while shifting your weight to the right foot. 10 to 12 reps on each side.

Half Squat
Stand tall with good posture holding your hands out in front of you for balance Now bend at the knees until your thighs are parallel with the floor Keep your back long throughout the movement, and look straight ahead Make sure that your knees always point in the same direction as your toes Once at your lowest point, fully straighten your legs to return to your starting position Repeat the exercise sixteen times with a smooth, controlled rhythm Breath in as you descend, and out as you rise.

Leg Swings
Flexion/Extension - Stand sideways onto the wall Weight on your left leg and your right hand on the wall for balance Swing your right leg forward and backward 10 to 12 repetitions on each leg Cross-Body flexion/Abduction - Leaning slightly forward with both hands on a wall and your weight on your left leg, swing your right leg to the left in front of your body, pointing your toes upwards as your foot reaches its furthest point of motion Then swing the right leg back to the right as far as comfortable, again pointing your toes up as your foot reaches its final point of movement 10 to 12 repetitions on each leg.

Lunges
Standing tall both feet together (starting position) Keeping the back straight lunge forward with the right leg approx 1 to 1½ metre The right thigh should be parallel with the ground and the right lower leg vertical Spring back to the starting position Repeat with the left leg 12 to 16 repetitions on each leg.

Ankle Bounce
Double leg bounce - Leaning forward with your hands on the wall and your weight on your toes, raise and lower both heels rapidly (bounce) Each time, lift your heels one to two inches from the ground while maintaining ground contact with the ball of your feet 12 to 16 repetitions

Single leg bounce - leaning forward with your hands on a wall and all your weight on your left foot, raise the right knee forward while pushing the left heel towards the ground Then lower the right foot to the floor while raising the left heel one or two inches Repeat in a rapid, bouncy fashion 12 to 16 repetitions on each leg

25 things to avoid in Resume

2005-10-26T03:11:00.000-07:00

So, you're experienced? Before you advertise this in your resume, be sure you can prove it.

Often, when job seekers try to sell themselves to potential employers, they load their résumés with vague claims that are transparent to hiring managers, according to Scott Bennett, author of "The Elements of Résumé Style" (AMACOM). By contrast, the most successful job seekers avoid these vague phrases on their résumés in favor of accomplishments.

Instead of making empty claims to demonstrate your work ethic, use brief, specific examples to demonstrate your skills. In other words, don't tell.

Bennett offers these examples:

Instead of... "Experience working in fast-paced environment"Try... "Registered 120+ third-shift emergency patients per night"

Instead of... "Excellent written communication skills"Try... "Wrote jargon-free User Guide for 11,000 users"

Instead of... "Team player with cross-functional awareness"Try... "Collaborated with clients, A/R and Sales to increase speed
of receivables and prevent interruption of service to clients."

Instead of... "Demonstrated success in analyzing client needs"Try... "Created and implemented comprehensive needs assessment
mechanism to help forecast demand for services and staffing."

The worst offenders
It's good to be hard-working and ambitious, right? The hiring manager won't be convinced if you can't provide solid examples to back up your claims. Bennett suggests being extra-careful before putting these nice-sounding but empty words in your résumé.

Aggressive
Ambitious
Competent
Creative
Detail-oriented
Determined
Efficient
Experienced
Flexible
Goal-oriented
Hard-working
Independent
Innovative
Knowledgeable
Logical
Motivated
Meticulous
People person
Professional
Reliable
Resourceful
Self-motivated
Successful
Team player
Well-organized

Slope of a straight line!!!

2005-10-25T02:27:00.000-07:00

Slope of a line is defined as the ratio of y coordinate difference to x coordinate difference.
For eg. the slope of a line (m) passing through points (x1, y1) and (x2,y2) is m = (y2-y1)/(x2-x1).

Slope of a line perpendicular another line would be the negative reciprocal slope.
ie, slope of line perpendicular (m2) to a line having slope m is

m2 = -(1/m)

The general equation of a line is y-y1 = m(x -x1) + c where c is the y intercept and passing through (x1,y1) having slope m.

You can find the equation of a line perpendicular to this line as well by finding slope of this line.
You cam have more info on this at http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/66642.html

Visit http://www.analyzemath.com/EllipseEq/EllipseEq.html for applet to explore the properties of circle, ellipse, parabola and hyperbola

Working on Saturday - 8th October

2005-10-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

It has been declared that Friday - 14th October will be a holiday for Tavantians in Bangalore. This is to enable us to enjoy an extended weekend of 5 days from 12th to 16th October following Navaratri festival holidays. Most of the guys around here have already planned the holidays to go native, meet friends, trekking or pilgrimage. I am going my village, which is my best holiday place.
Unlike a usual Saturday, it was bit hard today to work. I was into the documentation side of our project. But i felt very much like a usual working day once reached office and engaged in work and team meeting. Also we are celebrating DANDIYA today at Tavant. A big stage is set for celebration.
Dandiya Festival it is actually called as Navaratri festival, which is celebrated for nine days in which we worship Goddess DurgaMa, AmbeMa, KaliMa all these are different name but the goddess is one and the same. These festival is celebrated with great devotion by all Hindu people, but especially Gujarathi cast people celebrate it more. In these festival people keep idols of goddess Durga in their house or in public place and worship her daily for nine days.

Importance of Exercise

2005-10-07T01:48:00.000-07:00

Most of the people are not aware that exercise is the best remedy to heal pain. You can keep yourself secured from many kinds of body pain through regularl exercise.
Exercise will help you in strengthening your muscles and the flexibility of the same, which in turn improve the health. If you have the habit of regular exercise, you can improve the strength of body muscles including cardiac muscles, diabetes and cholesterol level and your over all physical as well as mental strength.

By working out on a regular basis, your body becomes more efficient at burning calories. This gives you more energy throughout the day. But one need to do the right amount of exercise, over exercising can weaken your immune system and make you sick.

Improved Self-Esteem
When following an exercise regimen for a regular basis, you bring about greater self-esteem through the results and accomplishment achieved.

Live for knowledge and health, everything essential in life will naturally come to you.

About Me

2005-10-06T04:36:00.000-07:00

Hi,
Am Rajesh hail from a beautiful Village called Kummanam in Kottayam District of Kerala State, India. I did my schooling at M.D. Seminary High School, Kottayam and bachelors degree in electronics Engineering at Govt: Model Engg. College, Cochin (www.mec.ac.in). Currently living in Bangalore, India with my wife, Smitha, and working for Tavant Technologies (www.tavant.com), Bangalore.

Kottayam
Kumarakom

Hi

2005-05-31T00:18:00.000-07:00

I just created this blog. Thanks for viewing.

What is a blog?

A personal record that sb puts on their website giving an account of their activities and their opinions, and discussing places on the Internet they have visited.