random ramblings

news Yet another topic that I do not have a strong opinion or clear perspective: politics. I must say I am mildly interested and sometimes my interest heightens and then for months I don't even read newspapers. When I was in college, I used to devour the local newspaper from first to last page - everything from politics, economics, sports and local affairs. I was in no particular hurry in the morning to get to college, I could park the breakfast on to the paper and go through every inch. But after I moved out of there, I have never managed to read a newspaper or magazine from cover to cover. I can attribute that to a lack of care about what is happening around me (unless something drastic which demands attention), bulky newspapers which are very clearly meant for a serious study rather than daily news, internet newspapers which don't have a definitive path to follow (side bar, top bar, snapshots, summaries and in between a small strip of news strewn with links - I am compelled ...

luck Yesterday was a hot sunny day - there won't be many days like this, but being incredibly lazy about making most of it, I mourn the passing of each day. In the afternoon, I called an old college friend - main topic of these calls has become gossip about old classmates - who got married, who else is on the line, tracking people around the globe. Nowadays I wait for being in the right mood to call friends. Most of the times I am really not in a mood to talk to anybody at all. I think I can muster enough energy to call someone when there is absolutely nothing else I can do - when there is not even crap on TV and I don't feel like reading. I can even be a bit talkative then. Anyways, I took the car to go out for shopping, still talking to him on mobile and got out to the single lane road out of the apartment. It was a 35 mph road and I must have hit the customary 40. Suddenly out of nowhere, a van pulled into my path from left. Within a fleeting second, I hit hard on the brakes...

I read a bit on Environment Tests and Deployment tools and it got me thinking. In my mind if there is a picture of deployment tool, it is InstallShield. If I need to install an application in my PC, I would ideally like to get a package which tells me exactly which exe to double click to start installation (No, I don’t want to do 10 things before starting my installation), essential information I need to know (I don’t want to choose a thousand attributes which can be probably defaulted) and a neat and complete way to uninstall the application (it should remove every bit of itself – I don’t want to pollute my PC with unnecessary stuff). Now, the application I am developing can be deployed like this? Probably no. I assume my job ends when I have a perfectly working application satisfying all user requirements and more. Deployment should be easy and it is left to system administrators. Deployment or Implementation would seem like an insignificant task for most developers....

Sometimes I feel I am the most gullible, impressionable by anything and agreeing to both sides of any debate alternatively without being able to make up my mind about something. Either I can console myself that I am finding good in everything or I can accuse myself for being a weakling who cannot differentiate good from bad. That is what I am searching for - my day of emotional maturity - then without running around mirages of ideas, dreams and goals, I can relax in the comfort that my thinking is right and this is what I want. I have been thinking of one quote for couple of days - it is from "pretty woman". Mr. Gere says that rarely people surprise him and Ms. Roberts replies that "good for you. Most people scare the shit out of me most of the times" or something in the similar line. Yes, I think that sometimes - I haven't made up my mind yet about most things in life. I fancy myself as good at recognizing patterns and making theories - in work and outside. I h...

I have a very peculiar behavioral problem – if I postpone something repeatedly, I may end up never doing it. I know very well about this but like with an invisible wall, I timidly knock against it, but just don’t seem to break it. Around three months back, a friend had called me during office hours when I was about to get into a meeting, I told him that I will call him back. Every weekend, I make a mental note to call him, but I put it off for later and finally I returned back from UK without calling him at all. I have minor to major activities in terms of seriousness in such hanging status – it is like going through life with a lot of frozen activities which I will probably never get back to. This blog was becoming one of those. So this post is to break the silence and get back. Quite a lot of things happened in my life since my last post. My assignment in UK came to an end, I traveled back home, stayed there for three days and came back to US of A. It has been hectic for some time an...

Finally I got my hands on Da Vinci Code. Popularity of this book has become some kind of myth in recent times. Undoubtedly it has become a worldwide best seller. After it was recommended to me by a friend, most days I see some mention in newspaper or people reading it in trains. In my circle of acquaintances, only new films, TV shows and music gets discussed and never a book – this may be the rare one. How many times have you discussed a new book release, checked reviews and tried to read it hot-from-the-oven not like after 50 years from the time of publishing? I watched a TV documentary called “Real Da Vinci Code” which visited all the sites mentioned in the book and ended up refuting many of the claims made in the book. I walk by a 175 year old Mary Magdalene church every morning and have visited Rome, Vatican, Paris, Lovre and London in recent times – that must be all the reasons to read this book. I did contemplate buying it, but somehow decided against it, tried borrowing from fri...

Somehow I could pluck myself away from the imaginary clutches busy work and went on a trip to Italy and Switzerland. We rummaged through Rome, Pisa, Florence, Venice, Interlaken and Geneva in 6 days. Except for rather tired legs, it was smoothest trip irrespective of so much travel through trains, buses, flights and even boats. It couldn't have been smoother if not for Google and internet - booking hotels, finding places to see, buying even intercity train tickets and planning the whole trip without leaving home even once. We have truly come of age in our use of Internet. Rome was another version of London and Paris with its share of monuments, art, museums, palaces and cathedrals. We went to Vatican first, stood in 2 km queue for security check, had our fill of Michelangelo and all others - they have painted, sculpted, sewn so much that after Sistine chapel everything starts to look the same. I don't have a very keen eye for art, but basically it looked grand. One thing I real...