Circle vs Straight Line

A Circle represents "Completeness". You can start from any point on the circle and if you keep traveling along other points you will reach to same point. So any point on the circle is both the beginning and end.
Whereas a Straight Line is never complete. You can start from one point and if you keep moving with other points on the line you will never reach your origin state. Thus there is no beginning and no end.

Human efforts also fall under these two categories. Circular category will refer to the daily chore done by us, to sustain ourselves. Cooking our food, Going to work etc. You can keep on doing this circular work today, tomorrow or any other day. It is very important but nonetheless it doesn't advance you much in life.
Whereas acquiring new skill, learning how to improve your productivity, learning new ways of doing thing is an effort of Straight line category. It will bring you from point 1 to point 2. You will feel more fulfilled, more energized.

So in my view we should keep moving in circles and on frequent intervals move in straight line.

Movie Review : Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Yesterday i got a chance to watch "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (starring James Franco directed by Rupert Wyatt), which was premiered on Star Movies as Movie of the Month.

I had seen the 2001 movie "Planet of the Apess" (starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Tim Burton). Now this is a true entertaining movie. The movie is fast paced and keeps you thoroughly entertained.

In this sequel, i was hoping that they will continue from the point where Mark crashed in the distant future of planet of apes, where apes had become sophisticated and had simply replaced humans in  the modern world.
But in this movie it has no correlation with the previous movie. Rather it starts with current world where a scientist is trying to discover high potential cure for brain diseases (which incidentally his father is also suffering). The drugs get tested on a chimpanzee who was pregnant at that time and gives birth to a very smart chimpanzee whom he had to bring home due to unavoidable circumstances.
Well now rest of the story is not too brilliantly new. You keep such pet at home and trouble will arise. So this smart chimpanzee gets transferred to a government facility where he is mistreated and kept with many other chimpanzees. Now you can imagine what will happen. Of course he will hate the bad behavior of humans and organize his chimpanzee army. So that was the rise of the apes.

The actors have done an OK job, neither too great nor too shabby. The movie lacks in speed. Sometimes it get little boring when they try to push the emotions of the apes to a little extreme.

My overall rating is 3/5

Book Review : The Sins of the Father

Author : Jeffrey Archer

This book is in continuation of "Only Time Will Tell". I am wondering what made author to choose this title. For me an apt title would have been "Love Never Fails". As this is the tale of Emma Barrington who painstakingly searches for her fiance and father of her child.

Story is again well written. However it doesn't keep the suspense and excitement to a level which was found in first book. But i guess that is always with the problem with subsequent parts of a great series. Twists and turns of the events in life of Harry, Giles and Hugo has been described in fascinating details. I couldn't stop reading it and finished it in one go. Author ends this installment at a very exciting end where we are waiting for final verdict on the fate of Harry and Emma.

I am sure that people will have to read this installment when they have read the first one, as one cannot hold himself back from a gripping story.

My rating is 4/5

Other reviews in this series
Only Time Will Tell

Book Review : Rich Dad's guide to investing

Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki

A few years back i had read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". It has been a very popular book. It talked what is the basic philosophical attitude difference does exist between a rich and successful man vs a common man who is dependent on job.

I got my hands on "Rich Dad's guide to investing" from the same author. So my curiosity picked up. I am now working in an organization and as per the previous book, i stand in the category of not so financially successful person. So i thought, lets learn how can i or some one in similar position like me can benefit from this book.

Although the start of the book seems very promising. Starting with the author who is just about to retire from military and has very little savings. Now the conversation with author and his rich dad begins as was in the previous book.

However the interest soon starts waning out when author keeps on repeating the same thing over and over which is what is the difference between his poor dad and his rich dad. Common man we get it.
Give me the good stuff. How do i take it to next level.

Some useful tips are provided. As one should be aware of tax laws, invest in business, don't gamble. But it is not something earth shattering new.

My rating is 2/5. You can skip it if you have read the first book.



 

Moral Policing by Police

We Indians never lose a chance of talking about high morals and values. We are always clinging to our glorious past and of the achievement that we invented zero. However things are not improving upon that zero.

Recently read a news that Police in Pune raided a so called high class party. There were pictures of man and women drinking and smoking in the newspaper, as if it was crime. Police used sticks and other means of physical force on man. Even women were slapped on being questioned of their crime. What is this. A moral policing. But why is police doing it. Has a law been broken? Has a crime been conducted? Has the police a right to beat innocent people? These are the questions no one either bothers or dares to ask.

I have heard that young couples are always harassed by Police on the beaches and in the park. I am sure that there will be few who are using this opportunity to do what should have been done in the privacy of a room. But most of the couples are not there to cause embarrassment and they are just having a nice time which is most probably being paid by their tax money. So why do Police or other vigilante of moral police torture and harass them.

I will like to change the term "Moral Policing" to another vulgar term "Sexual Policing" which is more apt to what these people are trying to do and should be aptly reported as that. And does our society need "Sexual Policing" to control whom and how we are supposed to live our lives.

Thoughts and feedback are welcome.

Road Rage : Sad Ending

We rushed into the emergency room. A doctor immediately started looking at him. He was unconcious but alive. Maybe a few broken bones. I had a very sinking feeling. My heart was telling me "Its your fault. Only if you had a little less ego." But how could i have known that a perfect day would have ended like this.

Today was very quiet in office. In first half i was working on the prototype application which i have been trying to build for past couple of weeks. Then in afternoon one defect got assigned to me. Grudgingly i had to stop my prototype work and start working at this defect, as we are very close to the release date and thus makes it urgent. By 7:30 PM i have figured out the root cause of the problem, found a solution and sent my code for review. Tomorrow it will be checked in the accurev (place where programmers keep their code).

I packed my bag and started my 20 km drive from office to my house. It typically takes about an hour to reach home during normal traffic. India is a developing nation. Further Pune is a growing city in India. A sleepy pensioner's paradise has suddenly emerged as a major IT hub. Thus Pune has seen lot of growth in last one decade. However development of infrastructure has not kept its pace with growing population. Further people are always in a rush. So driving during peak hours can be very challenging. It gets worse if you are on a car, as 2 wheelers will try to overtake you from left and right. And if you escape them, then you have pedestrians coming from every direction. Sometimes your driving experience will be rewarded with presence of a herd of cows and buffalos.
If it is not raining or too cold i too prefer to commute on my motorcycle, but today it was both rainy and cold. So i was driving back home in my car minding all the usual hurdles along the way. I will say that my driving skills in India have improved a lot in past one year. Truly practice makes a man perfect or near perfect. To make this journey enjoyable i typically listen to songs or play some audio books. Today i was listening to Atlas Shrugged. Right now it has come to a very interesting turn. There is a stretch of two way one lane each side road along the way. So here i was minding my own way and listening to the audio book. Suddenly I heard an irritating sound of horn. I looked ahead. There was a car in front of me. I looked in rearview mirror. There was a person driving a scooter and honking continuously. As nothing i could do i ignored him. Then again "Peep Peep" and again and again. Now it was getting irritating. What did he want from me? Can my car fly? Of course not. He kept on doing this for next 5 minutes. Now i had decided that i must give him a taste of his own medicine.
A narrow space emerged and this guy overtook me. Now i was behind his scooter. And here it comes. A big "Pop Pop" and then another one. He raced his scooter. I speeded my car. And then another honking and another. He looks behind and i press horn hard. And then another horn. Ah it was so pleasing. By now we have reached the Khadki over bridge. And suddenly that happened. A truck was coming from the other side of the road. Probably he couldn't make out the difference between truck's horn and my horn. It hit his scooter. Truck driver tried to stop but not before pushing his scooter for next 100 yards. People came from all sides. I had to stop and see. People said that we need to take him to hospital. I too followed the auto in which he was taken.

I hope he get well soon. This event has certainly taught me a lesson.

(c) 2012 Anup Mayank
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An alternate ending of this story is available at
Road Rage : Happy Ending

Google App Engine and Java Session

In JEE web application, we are used to keeping objects required in session, so that it can be retrieved in some other call flow. But by default GAE doesn't support session management.

To enable it you have to do following.
Open WEB-INF/appengine-web.xml

Enable session by uncommenting

true

But to make it work on hosted app engine, all the objects which you are planning to put in session must implement Serializable interface.

Now app engine will put your session data into storage system (Bigtable). You can see it by viewing your datastore viewer. Search by kind _ah_SESSION

Happy Teacher's Day

Today is teachers day. My son's school had been off today. Today morning when i switched on TV, there were reports of all the famous Gurus of famous pupils. The latest addition in this list is Saina Nehwal and Phulela Gopichand.
All this has brought my memories back to one teacher who holds special place in my heart. He is Binod Sir. I was in Samastipur Bihar in my class 8-10th. He was instrumental in my studies during that period. His patience and faith is remarkable. He has the true ingredients of a good teacher. After 10th we moved to Darbhanga. He visited couple of times in Darbhanga. But when i went to Varanasi for studies, i lost touch with him.

So today i want to say Happy Teacher's day to my Binod Sir. I hope you are doing well sir.

Book Review : Only Time Will Tell

This weekend i got an opportunity to catch up on fiction. This time it is the first book on Clifton Chronicles by Jeffery Archer. The book is titled 'Only Time Will Tell.'
On the art of story telling in english fiction, Jeffery Archer and Frederick Forsyth are my favorites. I was introduced to Jeffery Archer by 'The Fourth Estate' in my engineering college days.
Then i read 'Honour Among Thieves'. Both had been a delight.

Now coming back to this current book 'Only Time Will Tell'. This is a story of a family in England during the backdrop of second world war. Although the story is focused on main character 'Harry Clifton', but it is a story containing many stories as is the style of any great book. Ex. 'Godaan' by Premchand. As we progress through the book, the story is being narrated from the viewpoint of all characters starting with 'Harry Clifton' and ending again with 'Harry Clifton' and all other important characters (for example his mother, uncle etc) introduced and described in between. The plot is so gripping that it will be hard for you to put the book down and do anything else as it was with me.

My recommendation is to go for it. Now i am eagerly waiting for the next book in this series ('The Sins of the Father').

Other reviews in this series
The Sins of the Father 

Flipkart vs Homeshop18

I like to read books and thus occasionally buy books. Now with so many good websites catering to my need, i have almost stopped going to a bookstore. The last bookstore i visited was in Aundh about 6 months ago just to kill some time.

So far i have been using the services of Flipkart . I have been thoroughly impressed with the ease of usage of this website and their prompt delivery. Within 2-3 days of ordering book is in my hand. And they had free shipping on orders above Rs 200. So whenever i needed to buy a book, i just did some comparative analysis and most of the time flipkart was my choice, however sometimes crossword also took the prize. But recently flipkart has changed their policies and they have bumped up the free shipping to orders above Rs 300. Now it hurts me, since most of my book orders are below Rs300.

So i had to research for other useful website, and www.homeshop18.com came very highly recommended by a source. The price on homeshop18 are comparatively cheaper than flipkart and they have free shipping above Rs 200. So now i have used it to order my last 2 purchases. But i am not satisfied. Their delivery system is nowhere comparable to flipkart. It takes 7-8 days. If only they can speed up their delivery process, otherwise i will be forced to club my book purchases and get back to flipkart.

Product Based Software Companies in Pune

Please find the list of product based software companies.

Company	Domain	Office Locations
Fundtech	Banking and Finance	Aundh
ADP	HR, Payroll
Symantec	Security	Aundh, Baner
Sungard	Finance	Aundh, Kharadi
IBM Software Labs		Yerwada
BMC Software	Business Service Management	Senapati Bapat Road
Nvidia	GPU (Graphics processing unit)	Shivajinagar
VMware	Virtualization Software	Shivajinagar
One Network	Supply Chain	Aundh
Amdocs	Billing, Customer Relationship Management	Magarpatta
PTC Software	Product life cycle management	Kalyani Nagar
TIBCO	Enterprise Software	Yerawada
UGS Corp (Siemens)	Product Life Cycle Managment	Hinjewadi
ACI Worldwide	Payment Systems	Kalyani Nagar
IDeaS (SAS company)	Revenue Solutions	Baner
SAS	Business Analytics Software	Magarpatta City
Red Hat		Magarpatta City
FinIQ	Financial products	Kothrud
Triple Point Technology	Financial products	Yerwada
Tieto		Nagar Road
Synygy	Sales Performance	Koregaon Park
Persistent	Cloud Computing, Mobility, Analytics	Senapati Bapat Road
Geometric	Product Life cycle Management	Hinjewadi
Pubmatic	Advertisement Platform	Baner
UNIKEN Inc	Security Software	Baner
Saba	Human Resource	Yerwada
Mediaocean	Advertising	Wakad
Yardi Software	Real Estate Software	Senapati Bapat Road
Propalms	Application Virtualization	Baner

If you are working at one of them please add your comment about the job culture and whether you recommend someone applying there.

Also share the details of other product companies which are not listed here.

Road Rage - Happy Ending

Today was very quiet in office. In first half i was working on the prototype application which i have been trying to build for past couple of weeks. Then in afternoon one defect got assigned to me. Grudgingly i had to stop my prototype work and start working at this defect, as we are very close to the release date and thus makes it urgent. By 7:30 PM i have figured out the root cause of the problem, found a solution and sent my code for review. Tomorrow it will be checked in the accurev (place where programmers keep their code).

I packed my bag and started my 20 km drive from office to my house. It typically takes about an hour to reach home during normal traffic. India is a developing nation. Further Pune is a growing city in India. A sleepy pensioner's paradise has suddenly emerged as a major IT hub. Thus Pune has seen lot of growth in last one decade. However development of infrastructure has not kept its pace with growing population. Further people are always in a rush. So driving during peak hours can be very challenging. It gets worse if you are on a car, as 2 wheelers will try to overtake you from left and right. And if you escape them, then you have pedestrians coming from every direction. Sometimes your driving experience will be rewarded with presence of a herd of cows and buffalos.

If it is not raining or too cold i too prefer to commute on my motorcycle, but today it was both rainy and cold. So i was driving back home in my car minding all the usual hurdles along the way. I will say that my driving skills in India have improved a lot in past one year. Truly practice makes a man perfect or near perfect. To make this journey enjoyable i typically listen to songs or play some audio books. Today i was listening to Atlas Shrugged. Right now it has come to a very interesting turn. There is a stretch of two way one lane each side road along the way. So here i was minding my own way and listening to the audio book. Suddenly I heard an irritating sound of horn. I looked ahead. There was a car in front of me. I looked in rearview mirror. There was a person driving a scooter and honking continuously. As nothing i could do i ignored him. Then again "Peep Peep" and again and again. Now it was getting irritating. What did he want from me? Can my car fly? Of course not. He kept on doing this for next 5 minutes. Now i had decided that i must give him a taste of his own medicine.
A narrow space emerged and this guy overtook me. Now i was behind his scooter. And here it comes. A big "Pop Pop" and then another one. He raced his scooter. I speeded my car. And then another honking and another. He looks behind and i press horn hard. And then another horn. Ah it was so pleasing. By now we have reached the Khadki over bridge. It is a multi-lane road. So i changed lane and brought my car parallel to his scooter. I rolled down my window and ask him - "How did you find the sound system of my car". He slowed down and made a salute to me. I thought he had got my message and again i returned back to my audio book and rest of the journey back home.

(c) 2012 Anup Mayank

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An alternate ending of this story is available at
Road Rage : Sad Ending 

Movie Review : Real Steel

Yesterday movie Real Steel was on TV. I had seen promos of it for last few days and was determined to see it. I liked it very much and thus decided to write a blog entry for it.

Well it is a movie on Robot and set in little distant future (2018), where Robots take the place in boxing ring. So if boxing and robots are not of your interest you can simply skip/ignore whatever i have to say next.

Man characters of this movie are Charlie (Hugh Jackman  remember X-Men series), Max (Dakota Goyo a new kid whom i haven't seen before), the good robot (ATOM), the bad robot or the robot on bad side (ZEUS)

In summary the movie is about father son bonding, realizing what is really important and yeah robots killing other robots. Dakota Goyo has done a superb job. The fight sequences are worth watching. Dialogues are crisp and don't bore you.

So my recommendation is to watch it if you like this genre of movie. My rating 4/5.

For more details goto

Real Steel (2011)

Websites to download free e-books

I have used following websites and found them very useful for my day to day needs of e-books (technical and otherwise)

http://www.4shared.com/
(You will need to create a login account to use this)

http://ebookbrowse.com

Please share other suitable links which you have found useful.

Conversation with a kid

Kids are always fun to talk to. Today i had this conversation with a young girl (she is about 8-9 years old).

Ishita - Maine dekha ki main skating kar rahi thee. Wo jagah bahut achhi aur cement se plastered thee. Yahan ki tarah ubar khabar nahin.
Anup - Fir kya hua
Ishita - Main bahut fast skating kar rahi thee aur bahut maja aa raha tha. Tabhi kya hua ki maine dekha samne ek tree hai aur wahan par meri mamma phone par baat kar rahi thee.
Anup (chintit awaj main) - Oh fir.
Ishita - Main bahut dar gayi. Mujhe laga ki agar aise hi skating karti rahi to mamma se takra jaungi aur fir daant lagegi.
Anup - Fir kya hua
Ishita - Fir kya tha. Maine apni skate ko turn kara diya, lekin thodi hi der baad saamne ek doosra per aa gaya aur main usase takra gayi.
Anup - He bhagwan. Fir kya hua.
Ishita - Meri skate ulat gayi aur mujhe bahut chot lag gayi. Main rone lag gayi.
Anup - Achha.
Ishita - Fir meri aankh khul gayi. Main bahut dar gayi thee aur ro rahi thee.
Anup (Muskurate hue) - Lekin baad main to tum hansi hogi jab tumhain pata chala ki wo sab ek dream tha.
Ishita (Haste hue) - Ha Ha. Fir to main khoob hasi.

Sachin and his 100th hundred

So finally Sachin hit his 100th century today and once again it has proved that whole country is so emotionally attached with this game. In the England and Australia series, Indians were beaten hands down. All kinds of blame were put. Heros were made villains. Dhoni started loosing his charm. Cricket pundits started blaming coach, captain and Sachin. Talks of his retirement were the ice breaker of any conversation. It was very ridiculous to watch Vinod Kambli (one time buddy) putting his judgments on national television. Even advertisements shifted on this mood change. Hero started sponsoring Hockey (more of this need to happen as it is our national game) and Pepsi promoting football (soccer).
And now all has changed. Facebook is filled with all sorts of comments. People have again started comparing him with God. Some comments are as follows

Lets have a partyyyyyyyyyyy.

Finally Most awaited Milestone achieved.. 100th international 100.......

He is a true son of the nation... India Salutes Sachin

He always played for his country with average of 45 and more and still people will say he is nt a match winner, Those people should keep thr mouth shut and try to admire the ever greatest god of cricket Sachin.

And the list goes on and on.

Oh common people. He is just a sportsman, who has some good days and some bad days. No doubt he is great at what he does. But that is no reason to worship him as no doubt there are thousands if not millions among us who do equally well. Be it other sports, business, education, community service, defending nation etc. He is great, but as of my knowledge he has done well for himself. He has made lots of money from cricket match fees, endorsements and advertisements. I don't see him doing lot of philanthropic work (at least not in public knowledge).

So lets just give proper place to this game and its players and lets not get emotionally overjoyed or disturbed by it.

Kundan's first suggestion that helped me

During the pooja ceremony for our new apartment, we have got some goithas (made of cow dung and hays which is dried so that can be used for burning). Goitha was earlier used as one of the main fuel for earthen stoves and it is still being used in many indian villages. Now a days it is mostly a ceremonial thing used in pooja and havans etc.
So we had a bag full of goithas left after the pooja. We were debating on how it can be used. So after waiting for 2 months, i finally decided to throw it away. Our apartment is on the first floor. To throw it away i was planning to take the bag downstairs and throw it in the open area adjacent to our society building. That bag was little heavy so i asked Kundan (now 3.5 years old) to open the gate. He innocently asked where i am going. So i told him that it is garbage and i am going to throw it out. Then he said that leave it outside our gate. He remembered that we keep our daily garbage there, so that the cleaning people can take it out. It immediately struck me that now i don't have to take this heavy bag downstairs and who knows maybe cleaning people will find a use for it. Thus because of Kundan's presence of mind i was saved from unnecessary lifting of that heavy bag. Thank you Kundan.

SITM Lavale Campus

Khadakwasla Dam

Kundan's 3rd birthday