Month: March 2006

WinXP re-install….

Yesterday Aasim’s machine which runs WinXP refused to boot, nothing wrong with the hardware just something went wrong in Windows – have tried almost everything but I guess re-install would be the shortest answer.

However there is a hitch. Windows distro, oh well – it is not a distro at all. you have to find all the drivers and programs you need from N number of sources. I learn’t this lesson long ago but however despite all precautions I am missing my MapSource Track and Waypoint manager CD, the further aggravating fact is that I cannot download that program – only upgrades are down loadable… If any of the Garmin GPS users have any other idea please let me know. I only use that to download and convert data. Hmmm must look for a Linux based equivalent – after all I presume the USB on that thing just emulates the Serial port or whatever.

<deep breath/>

With temperature finally crossing 100F summer is here – Mangoes, Watermelon, holidays I no longer get those…

The myopic disgruntled employee

Every SME at some time or the other has this species on its payroll – His pet peeve is “Company sux my blood!”

Typical profile of this type of employee is that he is young, just out of college, intelligent, this probably is his first or second job and his parents in most of the cases were/are working in some (semi)government office. I don’t know how the last point co-relates but thats an observation.

Notably it does not matter what his salary is… his view of economics in a SME is frustratingly simple – the percentage of total project fee that I am getting as a salary is very small.

He coolly ignores that fact that whatever he is doing was largely learnt by him at the company’s expense and that skill is going to last with him for a life time. The realization of related costs involved running an outfit are non-existent for him and the fact that when there is no commercial work he still gets his salary does not matter.

Now that I have programmers who have been working with me for years, dealing with such types is thankfully mostly automatic they either become wise fast and correct their perspective or leave in a huff. This usually takes about 6 to 8 weeks – I don’t even want to start calculating the cost to company for the hours spent by several people on that idiot… It is just not worth my time. But, yes if you are just starting up and have very very small team these types are something to be wary of… they can be vicious enough to try and destroy their work before they leave. I learn’t to start using CVS precisely because of this.

Hmmm – Grievious indeed…

You scored as Yoda.

General Grievous
89%

Yoda
89%

Anakin Skywalker
67%

Darth Vader
56%

Obi Wan Kenobi
56%

Chewbacca
44%

Emperor Palpatine
44%

R2-D2
39%

Clone Trooper
39%

Mace Windu
33%

Padme Amidala
22%

C-3PO
17%

Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

The tie breaker was I teach better than I crush em 😉

Losers All!

If a bunch of losers hound another loser – who wins!!! =))

Parineeta!

swati2
Swati

Yesterday afternoon finally gave us time to open the DVD which had been lying for some time now and watch the movie Parineeta. Watching the movie flashed my thoughts back to a time, many, many years ago, when my mind was in a totally warped and f*cked up state. A time just after we had done our Hang gliding course… two incidences played themselves vividly in my mind.

The first one was when I took this picture of her to send to prospective grooms at a friend’s farm house – she looks so gloriously flushed and beautiful because we had just just made passionate love… and the other was from Alibag where as a part of our afterplay conversation we were discussing my engagement with some fatso in about 15 days time!!!

I reached out to touch her hand and began “What if I….?” I did not need to finish the sentence – she, without moving her eyes from the screen, said “Failure was not an acceptable outcome for me!”

Today, I dare not and need not contemplate – what if she had failed!!

After the movie, we spent the rest of the evening sipping mouth numbingly chilled Pink Champagne while munching “Sev Murmura Bhel”

Happy Holi!!!

Happy Holi to everyone… Feeling a bit old… Aasim is out there with his friends playing Holi with his friends, a lot of them are children of folks I have played Holi with when I was about 8 years old. Somebody is blasting Hindi re-mixes… but somewhere further are strains of “mohe panghat pe”…

Swati is planning hot palak parathas – Bhang anyone?

Sunshine again!

It is bright and sunny again and I intend to enjoy the couple of days before it gets too hot…

Somewhere in the middle of last week I was made to undergo a medical exam for insurance – the good news is that my Lipid Profile seems to be behaving itself. Spent a lot of time going over the Zend Framework – looks like a good start the best thing I liked was that while it can be used as a framework it will also serve as a component library. I do intend to use the Zend Service, Search and JSON soon.

However if one was to look for a complete and usable framework I would right now recommend Symfony.

A part of the week was also spent on learning a bit about structural engineering and how differential settlement of underlying strata of a building can effect the walls… and also about the unfortunate fact that even if you are willing to pay some people are reluctant to give their best.

The plot where our new home is being constructed has got part rock and part soft backfilled soil!! The structural engineer had redesigned the footings and added a note that there can be differential settlement of the footings – that basically means that some part of the building may settle down more than the other – the end result being some minor cracks in the walls at place. While the cracks are not big deal and many houses have it and can be easily repaired etc etc (BTW. walls do not hold the building in place). We got down to researching the stuff on our own and found the solution is simple – dig deeper and also found out that a couple of feet deeper there is hard rock!

Thats what is now being done – what I am pissed at is the fact that finding this was not my job in the first place…

Yes a meeting is being scheduled between the architect, contractor and structural engineer and Swati – hopefully they will get the message. People do listen when Swati talks business ;)

Wild Week!

Whew! The first three days of the week were dominated by construction related activity but a lot got done – finally the layout is complete, bore well has been dug and a three phase electricity meter has been installed and connected. Swati’s birthday passed in a whirl in the middle and then we decided to escape to Kanha.

This time we took our own car – Swati drove very well (for the uninformed I am not allowed to drive ;) ) and we had with us Aasim’s grandparents, yeah they *are* Swati’s parents but when Aasim is around they are more his than ours – that paints the picture very aptly.

Kanha as usual did not disappoint us – Tiger sightings were poor by the usual standards but that was enough for grandma and grandpa. The most heartening news was that all the 4 cubs of Indrani have survived and in fact most of the litter from last year has survived and there are at least about 20 young tigers romping about, in deed this is the time (15 to 18 months of age) when they get into fights and also are targeted by poachers but they have come this far and I have hope!

Oh yes! for the earlier part of the week we hand another wild guest with us – may be Swati will write about it some time later….