Heal the world... make it a better place

Problems, problems, everywhere…
Not a soul to solve

OK, OK, I admit that is a weak rip-off of the Ancient Mariner, but hey, I have tougher problems to tackle. Oftentimes, you get so overwhelmed by the myriad problems around you – from the communal riots in India to starvation in Africa and the incurable pains of AIDS that you just throw up your hands and shrug your shoulders. Maybe you are better-off helping the society by trying to catch the cheat who tops up your tank or the shopkeeper who conveniently “forgets” to give you your freebies.

Ever so once in a while though, there comes an opportunity where you can make a difference to the whole world – in a small yet significant way through projects like folding@home and rosseta@home. Both these projects engage in basic scientific research (to increase understanding of a phenomenon) as opposed to applied research (such as developing a cure for a disease).

Eh? Well, these projects study proteins. Before proteins carry out important biological functions they assemble themselves or fold. However, when they do not fold in the way they should (ie they misfold) they can lead to serious diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancers etc. many of which do not have a cure today.

Because this process of folding happens in about 10 one-millionths of a second (that’s about the time I take to comb my hair) scientists must leverage computer simulations to study them. Some of these simulations could take 30 years to run on a single PC, so the folding@home (FAH) program sends small packets of information to millions of networked computers and collates the updated information in a central computer. You can get a much better explanation of this here.

So, how can I help? I can be one of the millions of PC’s that help FAH run its simulation models by simply downloading a software and letting Stanford access my PC during my downtime! The system is extremely safe, secure and hardly costs anything (if you subscribe to the “unlimited” plan from your broadband service provider) - convince yourself by downloading the pdf from here. The world is supporting is supporting this initiative – PS3 have packaged an FAH client in their application – maybe you can too! Or even better, form a FAH team and try and put India in the rankings map!

Colpo di Fulmine

Non-Indian cuisine? Check; vegetarian? Check; Italian food? Check; Valet Parking? Check; Good wine list? Check; Centrally located? Check. Considering it checked all the right boxes, Little Italy Ristorante Bar was love at first sight (rather, at first aural reception) for us. No sniggers there from the back row – it is “aural”, note.

Ambience: The restaurant is divided into four distinct areas for seating. Outdoors on the remnants of the lawn is the place to be seen in. Don’t expect to be seated here unless you have reservations. There is a cozy little bar area as well adjacent to this. The indoor mezzanine lounge area is usually occupied by those who couldn’t make it to the outdoor area – it looks snug and comfy, though I must confess I haven’t been there yet. If you are in a group you might prefer the first floor indoor sitting area. There is a second floor family area as well that is usually opened up only when the other three areas are occupied (and that is quite often in the weekends). This has what looks like a dance floor and a DJ’s console and if you have kids, is a good place to let them loose.

There is a choice between chaired and sofa seating in most of these areas and I found the sofa’s, though low, very comfortable.

Other than this the ambience is nothing much to speak of; nothing much to complain – a lot of whites and brightly lit. Tables are reasonably well spaced. A fountain is thrown in at the waiting area. Popular music is played at most times.

Food: I really enjoy the food at this place. The variety available is excellent. The pizzas are of the classic, thin crust variety and are quite delicious. The pasta sauces taste fresh and the combination of ingredients and sauces are quite innovative. I especially liked the pesto sauces available. The starters could have been better, though. I would not particularly recommend the bruschetta. The selection of wines is pretty good and I have heard the desserts (esp. the home-made gelatos) are worth a try.

Service: I have had mixed experience with the service – pretentious once, but helpful and friendly on other occasions. Catching the eye of the bearer might be tough at times – though you could attribute that to their respecting your privacy!
In short, if you like Italian food, this is a place you must not miss. I would recommend that you make your first visit on a week day though!

Little Italy is at No. 1135, 100 Ft Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Bangalore-38. Ph. 25297482, 25289126.

Colpo di Fulmine in Italian literally means a thunderbolt (of love) – love at first sight.

Finito!

Australian for Beer – or not

With all the brouhaha surrounding Australia and their on-field behavior in cricket I thought it was surprising that Fosters have re-launched their “Australian for Beer” campaign in Bangalore billboards.

All would have been forgiven, were it not for some Aussies equating it more with horse-piss than to beer here, here and here.

Still, the ad is good value for motorists stuck in traffic jams and a cricket theme in world cup time is as good a strategy as any to re-launch their campaign in India.

Project Manager and Software Quality Assurance

I have been on both sides - in delivery as well as in SQA - and I still not entirely convinced which side of the toast is buttered better! But I can empathize with both sides and laugh at both. Here is a WIP* look at how an SQA dictionary would look like for the project manager.

Audit - An inspection of accounting procedures and records; conducted to confirm that you are grossly overpaid

Black Box Testing - Also called *cat-with-eyes-closed* testing or *ostrich-with-head-under-sand* testing

Certification - The document that makes you feel a spade is a WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction)

CiMAP - See Map to realize where you are at this time

CMM - Is passé. Has been sunset. Check CMMi

CMMi - A rehash of the old buzzword; check CMM

CoB - Cover ones Backside in case something goes terribly wrong; Sometimes refered to as Contingency of Business

Deviation - The work around to ensure that software can be released irrespective of its state

DPB - The Defect Prevention Board prevents you from generating defects for the duration of its meeting

Escalation - "You'd better do as I say, else…"

Estimates - Representing your gut feel in a scientific manner

Follow-up - Constant, ceaseless, irritating gnawing… a sure way to get things done. The precursor to escalation

FP - Important jargon to prove that you do have a gut feel

GDSN - A conglomeration of Management Terminology: Global, Design, Strategy and Note

Hand Over - An over hand tactic to facilitate underhand takeovers

Impact Analysis - Judging how badly the change you have made will blow up in your face

Judgement - Like a fingerprint; varies from person to person

KoM - Kick off Meetings; self explanatory; thick jeans recommended

Labeling - The beginning of the end. The formal way of saying " I am not going to trouble you any more for now. Let us renew our rivalries some time later…"

Measurement - Translating the abstract into numbers

Minutes - Representing the hours wasted through a mail

Mock Installation - A s/w installation done in jest

NC - Non Consensual; its chains and whips next…

OOP - Oops; leaked out of the Java handbook

Planning - Sorry; am not sure of that one; Is it something a PM should know?

Project Book - The one stop information repository

Project Office - The stewards in F1; responsible for the green lights and the chequered flag

Proposal - Usually done on bent knees; usually falls on deaf ears

Quality - Greek Mythology; the Godess of Perfection

Quality Manual - The quality Bible; written in Greek

Release - Opening Pandora's Box

Reporting - Dreaming up innovative reasons why you are so far behind schedule

Risk Management - The art of creating risks to keep people high on adrenaline and awake

Sampling - Working on the principle that one rotten apple in a bunch, rots the rest

Sigma - Sigma is the English 'S'; Six sigma is Six S; Repeat it fast enough and it becomes the road to success

Tracking - Usually done by dogs; What you should start doing if she is good looking

UCF - Unit Construction Form; Prepare this to realize how deep in s**t you are

Verification - Documented confirmation that things indeed do not work

Versioning - Various shades of the truth

Walk-through - Trespassing into someone else's property and questioning its legality

X-tension - The inevitable request on deadline day

Y - Why me?

Zzz - What training sessions on the dictionary above will inevitably evoke

* - Work in Progress

Is Indian cricket going the way of hockey?

Mathew Hayden
Sanath Jayasurya

Ricky Ponting
Yuvraj Singh
Keiron Pieterson

Andrew Flintoff
Adam Gilchrist
Jacob Oram

Shane Bond
Makhaya Ntini
Mutthaiah Muralidharan

What does the team above tell you? For one, it is a very good team – one that would certainly do extremely well at this world cup (maybe even run Australia very, very close!). Off the top of my head however, this is a team that epitomizes modern day limited-overs cricket. The cricket that oozes POWER from every pore – in a team into which Shahid Afridi, Mark Boucher, Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar failed to make the grade.

One-day cricket today is an explosive combination of the three S’s - Speed, Strength and Stamina. You need to hit the ball harder than Peiterson does, bowl them faster than Shane Bond, be nimbler than a Yuvraj (at his prime), catch as safely as Matt Hayden, have the sustained accuracy of a Murali over long spells and be as pin-point with your throwing as Ponting. Preferably, you have to be able to do many of these things.

Rewind to the mid-70s and the end of the sub-continental domination of hockey began with the introduction of Astroturf. That immediately placed more importance to the physical aspects of the game – faster passing and quicker movement. With power and strength becoming the name of the game in penalty corners as well (with the rule changes), we witnessed the silent cremation of Indian hockey. The phoenix like resurrections during the Moscow Olympics (against a depleted field) and a couple of Champions Trophy triumphs in the 90’s (?) fooled no one. Indian hockey is today well and truly dead and buried – meandering without direction and led by autocrats.

Ditto with tennis – no one has quite managed to recreate the glories of Ramanathan Krishnan, Vijay Amritraj and to a lesser extent Ramesh Krishnan once the wooden racquets died their natural death. Leander Paes was a exception, Sania Mirza is no more than an illusion. Without having at least one of a Sampras-like Server, a motorized Michael Chang-esque court coverage or heavy ground strokes a-la-Nadal, we stand no chance in the modern tennis world. And our players are too “under-developed” for that! A similar tale with football – we were one of the better teams in the 30s and 40s – albeit plating barefoot!

Is cricket going down the same route?

Consider the following:
- In 1999, the South African cricket team was as fit as the rugby team competing in the 1999 Rugby World Cup – (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11138982&dopt=Abstract).
- Witness the bewildering assaults by both the teams in the two most memorable matches between Australia and SA recently (not coincidentally nos 1 and 2). The one in South Africa where the world record for the highest score was broken twice in a day and the more recent World Cup match in the West Indies – the batting was brutal, the bowling ferocious and the fielding electric.

While a Tendulkar, a Dravid and a Ganguly are still likely to win India a test match, they are hopelessly in danger of being dinosaurs in the one-day game. With 20-20 cricket growing in popularity by the day – this emphasis on speed, strength and stamina is only bound to increase (Is that why the BCCI is reluctant to adopt the 20/20 form of the game?). India have to think seriously of shedding some blood and bringing in a more young energetic and fighting unit if they want to withstand the furious pace of the modern one-day game. The game will be one of unrelenting energy for the course of 50 overs, with intensity never wavering. We need younger blood, stronger muscles and steelier minds to combat this insurgency. We need the Rainas, the Sreesanths, the Kaifs and the Uthappas. Let us leave the tried and tested “heros” for the longer version of the game where they can match their wits. Let us adopt the not-very-innovative policy of having a fresh one-day team that bears little resemblance to the test squad and opt for the longer haul.

We have to heed the clarion call now or face being also-rans in yet another sport.