I am tired of the news channels. They have breaking news all through the day every single day. I remember a time when the term Breaking News was reserved for something very important and had a national significance. What bothers me more is the increasing pessimism in the news channels. Rarely do we see something that celebrates the spirit of life being served as part of our daily news consumption.  Here is an attempt to bring out the good side of life

The Ozone layer achieved celebrity status in the late eighties and early nineties due to its depletion. Prior to that it was only studied about in Science and Geography classes and was never a topic of debate and world change that it turned out to be. It was reported then that a certain type of chemical compound called ‘Chloroflouro Carbons’ (CFC) were responsible for the depletion of a layer of the Earth’s atmosphere called the Ozone layer. The Ozone layer protects the Earth from the harmful radiation spectrum of the Sun. Scientists observed a hole in the Ozone layer on the Polar regions. They further attributed this to the CFCs. There were emitted in abundance by many industrial plants and was a common product in the manufacturing of Refrigerators, Aerosol cans etc.. The problem with CFC compounds is that they cannot be decomposed or broken up easily by the Earth’s atmospheric gases. A single molecule of this compound can exist for almost 100 years before it can be broken down! The discovery of the hole in the Ozone layer lead to a near mass hysteria.  Governments and world bodies swung into action and a blanket ban on CFCs was announced. This what we got right. We had a group of leaders and a generation of people who were ready to correct the wrongs of the past for a better future. It required an impending world wide catastrophe to bring out the tendency for a greater common good in the people of the world. Anyway, corrective action was taken in time and last week scientists have reported that the hole in the Ozone layer is starting to close up and it should be completely closed by 2050. Kudos!

You can read a scientific article about this here:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/26may_ozone.htm

Here is an extract from an email I had sent to Steve Jobs on April 8, 2008. I, of course did not receive any reply These are a list of feature requests for iTunes and the iPod.

1. We in India are huge fans of what we call ‘Filmi music‘. In the western world it is classified as ‘Original soundtrack‘. Our movies are an exotic mix of song and dance and they are unbelievably popular. There is a design problem with the cover flow view when we load such music. The problem is because we have a different artist for each song in a given movie. Actually we have many singers for each song. The cover art is displayed once for each song. Conceptually, a cover flow view should represent a physical collection (of cds) and hence the cover art should appear only once for each album. Can this be fixed in future versions of the firmware and also in iTunes?
2. An 80GB iPod can hold a huge amount of music. Its difficult to browse through any collection larger than say 2-3GB. Is it possible to add a bookmark feature that is not the same as the ‘On the Go’ feature. The bookmark feature can be valid only for a session when i am trying to decide what to play.
3. Another problem with Indian Music CDs is the availability of ID3 tags. Is it possible to represent ID3 tag information as a special audio track in an audio cd that can be read by iTunes? That way its easy to make mp3 collections out of audio cds that we have purchased. We would not mind paying a small fee for this feature.
4. It is common to have more than one iPod per family nowadays. Its a very rare that i really need to carry the entire 80GB of songs that i have every time i want to listen to music. If you consider a couple, then both of them will be storing the same songs on both their devices apart from some individual favourites. What i would really like is a ‘iPod strore’ that is a physical device which can store iPod ready songs but cannot play them. I can connect my iPod (and so can my partner) to the device and just transfer music of my choice using a special program on the iPod. I know that this may may have legal ang copyright issues, but can you please think about it?

Loooong back I had sent some suggestions to a Tata McGraw Hill representative who used to visit our campus  with some ideas to improve the text book experience in colleges. I am yet to receive a response or see any of it in action as of today. Posting it here hoping someone at some publishing house will benefit from these. TMH in the post refers to Tata McGraw Hill:

1. Establish an Internet group(mail group type) consisting of al teachers who are teaching a course from the same text book. If possible make the author(s) also a part of the group. This would enable effective and very productive discussions and problems that teachers may face when teaching a course. This would also enable sharing of ideas and teaching methodologies.
2. Allow qualified instructors to register to updates whenever a new edition or new title is released on topics of his interest. That way you could save costs on printing lots of catalogues!
3. Establish special TMH sections in institute libraries(in collaboration with your distributors) that would contain all titles from your catalog on subjects of interest. You could also fix special information kiosks at these sections that provide more information and resources regarding your titles.
4. Establish special public libraries in cities and towns where people can browse through your books. They cannot, however, take them out. Have a sales counter for this.
5. Conduct special road shows and seminars for students on the complete process of bringing out a book. This would help them understand the amount of effort that goes into publishing a single book. maybe you could even encourage students to bring out some special titles.. After all there are some things only students know!
6. Conduct a contest of some sort and encourage especially bright students by providing them substantial discounts on your titles, maybe for a year or two
7. A big challenge is the amount of books circulated in the used books market.  provide special discount coupons on further purchases, maybe other freebies for purchase (esp bulk) of text books

I got this as an email forward today. I want to blog it so I remember to read it often… If you happen upon this entry and enjoy it too, then that’s nice too!

When things in your life seem,  Almost too much to handle, When 24 Hours in a day is not enough, remember the story of the empty jar and 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some  items in  front of him.When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students, If the jar was full. They agreed that it was.The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open Areas between the golf balls.
He then asked  The students again If the jar was full.They agreed it was.The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.  Of course, the sand filled up everything else.He asked once more if the jar was full.

The students responded with an unanimous ‘yes.’
The professor then produced  two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents  into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed.

‘Now,’ said the professor,   As the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that  This jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things – God, family, children, health, friends, and favorite passions – things that if everything else was lost
and only they remained, Your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter Like your job, house, and  car.

The sand is everything else — The small stuff.’If you put the sand into the jar first,’  He continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.The same goes for life.If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.So…

Pay attention to the things  that are critical to your happiness.
Play With your children.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner.
There will always be time
To clean the house and fix the disposal.
‘Take care of the golf balls first — The things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.
The professor smiled.
‘I’m glad you asked’.
It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life  may seem, there’s always room for a cup of coffee with a friend.’

I was a regular user of ID3 TagIt! I was forced to look for alternatives once I got a new laptop with Microsoft Vista. ID3 TagIt! does not work on Vista and the developers have stopped work on the tool. My problem is I need a file renaming tool and a tool for editing Id3 Tags as i have a some collections with bad file names. In my exhaustive hunt for the perfect ID3 tagging tool, I happened to find MP3Tag by Florian Heidenreich from http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ . I loved ID3TagIt! because of its simplicity and the ability to lookup freeDb for cover art and tag information. Mp3 Tag goes a step further as it includes a powerful action scripting option. You can use regular expressions to do pretty much anything you want! I was able to rename a set of 90 files yesterday with a single mouse click. I would highly recommend this tool to anyone who has an iPod or who just likes to keep his music collection clean!

Why do we feel inspired?

Why do we lose inspiration?

Why do we hesitate to say nice things to people?

Why can’t our lives be slower?

What is the hurry?

Why is every road journey a challenge to get from point A to B in the shortest time possible?

Why is our professional life devoid of any personal feelings?

Why is love not a corporate value?

Why is freedom of expression such a big issue while sensitivity to your neighbour and fellow human being is not?

Why can’t men never ever understand the love of a mother?

Why is not necessary to understand Love in order to experience it?

Why do poor Belgian farmers  pour excess milk into the fields while children die in Africa due to malnutrition?

Why is chocolate sooooo good?

Why does a starlit night sky evoke the dreamer in everyone?

Why do we have Saturday and Sunday off instead of Wednesday and Sunday?

Why do chemical engineers become software programmers? What was the use of University education in his life?

Why do I spend so much of my time wandering aimlessly on the Internet?

Why do people build monstrous buildings next to a narrow road in Bangalore?

Why can’t I live more in the real world and less in the digital world?

It happened finally! Microsoft woke up to the reality of its worst nightmare. Google quietly announced that they will be coming out with an OS by 2010. The manner in which the announcement was made is another indication of the new world order – an entry in the company blog. There were no press events or a fancy launch party to mark the event. Yet, the world went into a tizzy as news of this announcement spread through the channels.  The common consensus is that Microsoft should be worried. Yes, they should be. Is this, however a sizeable threat to their product line? Lets face facts. We need Microsoft products. There are many reasons why anyone including Google are way behind Microsoft on desktop productivity. One, there is no product, free or hosted that is as good as Microsoft Office. Microsoft Powerpoint, in particular is the most used tool by corporate executives worldwide. Second, Google spreadsheet is a good replacement to Excel. It cannot, however be used for complex and long running computations. Another issue is the that of data privacy. I wouldn’t want my investment broker to hold my personal data on a Google spreadsheet however ‘good’ it may be. Third, and returning the specific case in point, Google chrome OS is targeted at Netbooks. For all the hype about the new age of life (only) on the internet, there are millions of people with real jobs and real computing needs well outside the scope of the internet. To this minority Microsoft Windows is still the most preferred platform.  Ask architects using CAD tools, doctors using imaging tools, and organizations using SAP and other ERP tools. Until these people are eradicated from the face of the Earth, Microsoft is in business.

I love to admit this. I am a BIG fan of 24. Have watched every episode from the night David Palmer was attacked as a senator. Season 7 is such a refreshing change from the monotony that had creeped in into the plots right from season 5. I definitely did not like the whole season involving Jack’s crazy family(father and brother). The worst move was to make Wayne Palmer the President. What were the directors thinking? David Palmer lent a character to the seat of the President that I strongly feel many of the issues he faced would make very good case studies in a management class. Wayne Palmer was to the presidency what David Beckham would be to football in the US league. A poster boy and nothing more.

Coming back to season 7, it was great to see Tony back though he could have had a shave and a clean face! What I cannot accept is the number of people Tony has shot and killed in an attempt to secure the canister. It is an exagerration beyond human comprehension for people who have seen Tony from season 1. I remember having a funny feeling about Tony in the first few episodes of season 1, but that went away as it was revealed as a girlfriend issue later on. To see an incendiary Tony breaks my heart. What could have made him turn around? No motivating factor can ever justify this twist in the plot!

Lets see how the next 4 episodes pan out.. Lord.. please protect my frahile heart! Let not Jack, Aaron Peirce or Chloe turn over to the dark side!

The Dark Knight

There has been recent work on revisiting the definitions of database design using normal forms.  For a long time now, the work of E.F. Codd has been the seminal work on defining the ‘goodness’ of a relational data model. Generations of data modellers have used the definitions of the third normal form and on rare occassions the Boyce Codd normal form to deliver database designs. These definitions are based on a fundamental concept called a functional dependency. A functional dependency is a way to express a contraint that actually exists on data. Some discussions treat the process of database normalization as the removal of functional dependencies. This is very misleading. We should not remove functional dependencies. They exist!

While the notion of functional dependencies and database normal forms have been sufficient for most business needs, it has long been felt that they do not adequately capture all contraints on the data. Furthermore,  newer data models like XML cannot use the same concepts even though they work on the same data. If they work on the same data, the same constraints exist!

A new approach attempts to use the concepts of information theory to redefine database normal forms while retaining their innate essence. What this means is that a relational will be in 3NF irrespective of whether we consider the traditional definition or the new definition based on information theory.

In information theory, a fundamental concept is that of entropy. Entropy is a measure of  uncertainity associated with a random variable. What does this mean to data? Shannon is a scientist who has contributed  a lot to the field of information theory. He asked this question: “What is the information I am missing if I dont know the value of a random variable?” or “What do I lose when I dont know who will win the toss?” This is measured by Shannon’s definition of entropy.

The same notion is extended to the ‘goodness’ of a design.  To use this approach We define our world in terms of data units. Data units will come together to form relations. Treat a data unit as a random variable. I now ask this question “If i remove the value of a data unit what information will i lose?”  Compare this with the notion of a functional dependency of the form name->phonenum. If there is one record of the form (sss,12344), for another record where name=ssss, I dont lose anything if i dont know the phone number as i can deduce that from the first record.  This measure of entropy is then used to define various normal forms. I will write tomorrow about the normal forms in detail.

The concept is very interesting and it can be extended to XML data also. Pretty cool….

The original work can be founf here -> http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1059519&dl=

Software development is very different from classroom projects. Everyone knows that! But, what is surprising is that a lot of software development is exploratory and if you are used to MSDN style documentation to help you with your software development, it aint’ going to happen! In my current project all (ALL) knowledge is stashed away by hurriedly written wiki pages. I personally like the concept of wiki pages. What I dont like is the freeform that this style of communication promotes without the need for any kind of structure to the documents. What typically happens is this- A software developer works on a feature for weeks and at the end of countless hours of medidation on the issue he decides to leave his footprint on a wiki page. The poor guy(or gal) is so tired by the end, that all he can manage for a clear footprint is a smudgy shuffle on the sand. If someone where to ask you how to walk, can you document the feature? you sould say, it is so SIMPLE!

The same is the case with software developers writing wiki pages. They have worked on the feature for soooo loooong that everything is so clear and simple. It is difficult for them to see it from an objective point of view and imagine a dumb new guy (like me) trying to understand the feature. The result is a cryptic and half useful document that cannot be understood without the author standing beside me and holding my hand.. Maybe software developers should write wiki pages only after one month after they have completed a feature. The gap in time will hopefully make them more like the rest of the world! Better still, wiki pages must be auto generated from code comments!!!!! (aka Java docs)