Lines Of Imagination

What Students Study in Pakistan ?

2008-12-15T02:37:00.000-08:00

BE — Bomb Engineering
M.B.B.S -- Member of Bomb Blasting Society
IIT --Islamic Institute of Terrorism
CAT —Career in Alqueda & Taliban
M.Tech –Masters in Terror Technology
LLB –Learning Licence of Bomb Blasting
B.Sc. –Bio-Weapon Science
AIIMS —All International Islamic Members Society
BA —Bomb Analyst
B.D.S. —Bomb Development Society

When is your Thinking time?

2008-08-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

I have been observing & analyzing myself and i came up with some strange idea & got one big question (yeah it seems very big) When i think?(or more generally when do people think?)Mine is mostly during traveling. That happens most of the time & at that time checklist of "To Do" list runs in my brain. And during traveling i try to make Phone calls to people whom i need to call but some times it is difficult to talk over phone,as many people will be eavesdropping on my telephonic conversation but still it can be manageable.

And it seems to me that almost all people do the same, may be it's because traffic in Bangalore is more and on an average an individual spends 4 hours of his time in traveling alone per day.

We can make use of traveling time to think about ourselves(plans, priorities etc..) instead of thinking about work or family. That way we can assess ourselves and learn to love our self.

Let me know when you think.

Never Loose Hope

2007-09-17T01:18:00.000-07:00

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."
~ Samuel Beckett

Socrates was called "an immoral corrupter of youth" and continued to corrupt even after a sentence of death was imposed on him. He drank the hemlock and died corrupting.

As a young man, Abraham Lincoln went to war a captain and returned a private. Afterwards, he was a failure as a businessman. As a lawyer in Springfield, he was too impractical and temperamental to be a success. He turned to politics and was defeated in his first try for the legislature, again defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for congress, defeated in his application to be commissioner of the General Land Office, defeated in the senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his efforts for the vice-presidency in 1856, and defeated in the senatorial election of 1858. At about that time, he wrote in a letter to a friend, "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth."

Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62. He later wrote, "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up." (his capitals, mind you)

Sigmund Freud was booed from the podium when he first presented his ideas to the scientific community of Europe. He returned to his office and kept on writing.

Robert Sternberg received a C in his first college introductory-psychology class. His teacher commented that "there was a famous Sternberg in psychology and it was obvious there would not be another." Three years later Sternberg graduated with honors from Stanford University with exceptional distinction in psychology, summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. In 2002, he became President of the American Psychological Association.

Charles Darwin gave up a medical career and was told by his father, "You care for nothing but shooting, dogs and rat catching." In his autobiography, Darwin wrote, "I was considered by all my masters and my father, a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect." Clearly, he evolved.

Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive." As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."
~ Confucius

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was "sub-normal," and one of his teachers described him as "mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams." He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. He did eventually learn to speak and read. Even to do a little math.

Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked 15th out of 22 students in chemistry.

Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he succeeded.

R. H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York City caught on.

F. W. Woolworth was not allowed to wait on customers when he worked in a dry goods store because, his boss said, "he didn't have enough sense."

When Bell telephone was struggling to get started, its owners offered all their rights to Western Union for $100,000. The offer was disdainfully rejected with the pronouncement, "What use could this company make of an electrical toy."

John Garcia, who eventually was honored for his fundamental psychological discoveries, was once told by a reviewer of his often-rejected manuscripts that one is no more likely to find the phenomenon he discovered than to find bird droppings in a cuckoo clock. (sort of a cute critique actually)

Rocket scientist Robert Goddard found his ideas bitterly rejected by his scientific peers on the grounds that rocket propulsion would not work in the rarefied atmosphere of outer space.

Daniel Boone was once asked by a reporter if he had ever been lost in the wilderness. Boone thought for a moment and replied, "No, but I was once bewildered for about three days."

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly."
~ Robert F. Kennedy

An expert said of Vince Lombardi: "He possesses minimal football knowledge and lacks motivation." Lombardi would later write, "It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up."

Michael Jordan and Bob Cousy were each cut from their high school basketball teams. Jordan once observed, "I've failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed."

Babe Ruth is famous for his past home run record, but for decades he also held the record for strikeouts. He hit 714 home runs and struck out 1,330 times in his career (about which he said, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."). And didn't Mark McGwire break that strikeout record? (John Wooden once explained that winners make the most errors.)

Hank Aaron went 0 for 5 his first time at bat with the Milwakee Braves.

Stan Smith was rejected as a ball boy for a Davis Cup tennis match because he was "too awkward and clumsy." He went on to clumsily win Wimbledon and the U. S. Open. And eight Davis Cups.

Tom Landry, Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, and Jimmy Johnson accounted for 11 of the 19 Super Bowl victories from 1974 to 1993. They also share the distinction of having the worst records of first-season head coaches in NFL history - they didn't win a single game.

Johnny Unitas's first pass in the NFL was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. Joe Montana's first pass was also intercepted. And while we're on quarterbacks, during his first season Troy Aikman threw twice as many interceptions (18) as touchdowns (9) . . . oh, and he didn't win a single game. You think there's a lesson here?

After Carl Lewis won the gold medal for the long jump in the 1996 Olympic games, he was asked to what he attributed his longevity, having competed for almost 20 years. He said, "Remembering that you have both wins and losses along the way. I don't take either one too seriously."

"Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay."
~ Eric Hoffer

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.

Charles Schultz had every cartoon he submitted rejected by his high school yearbook staff. Oh, and Walt Disney wouldn't hire him.

After Fred Astaire's first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, read, "Can't act. Can't sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." He kept that memo over the fire place in his Beverly Hills home. Astaire once observed that "when you're experimenting, you have to try so many things before you choose what you want, that you may go days getting nothing but exhaustion." And here is the reward for perseverance: "The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style."

After his first audition, Sidney Poitier was told by the casting director, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?" It was at that moment, recalls Poitier, that he decided to devote his life to acting.

When Lucille Ball began studying to be actress in 1927, she was told by the head instructor of the John Murray Anderson Drama School, "Try any other profession."

The first time Jerry Seinfeld walked on-stage at a comedy club as a professional comic, he looked out at the audience, froze, and forgot the English language. He stumbled through "a minute-and a half" of material and was jeered offstage. He returned the following night and closed his set to wild applause.

In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, told modeling hopeful Norma Jean Baker, "You'd better learn secretarial work or else get married." I'm sure you know that Norma Jean was Marilyn Monroe. Now . . . who was Emmeline Snively?

At the age of 21, French acting legend Jeanne Moreau was told by a casting director that her head was too crooked, she wasn't beautiful enough, and she wasn't photogenic enough to make it in films. She took a deep breath and said to herself, "Alright, then, I guess I will have to make it my own way." After making nearly 100 films her own way, in 1997 she received the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.

"Flops are a part of life's menu
and I've never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses."
~ Rosalind Russell

After Harrison Ford's first performance as a hotel bellhop in the film Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, the studio vice-president called him in to his office. "Sit down kid," the studio head said, "I want to tell you a story. The first time Tony Curtis was ever in a movie he delivered a bag of groceries. We took one look at him and knew he was a movie star." Ford replied, "I thought you were spossed to think that he was a grocery delivery boy." The vice president dismissed Ford with "You ain't got it kid , you ain't got it ... now get out of here."

Michael Caine's headmaster told him, "You will be a laborer all your life."

Charlie Chaplin was initially rejected by Hollywood studio chiefs because his pantomime was considered "nonsense."

Enrico Caruso's music teacher said he had no voice at all and could not sing. His parents wanted him to become an engineer.

Decca Records turned down a recording contract with the Beatles with the unprophetic evaluation, "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on their way out." After Decca rejected the Beatles, Columbia records followed suit.

In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after one performance. He told Presley, "You ain't goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."

Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him "hopeless as a composer." And, of course, you know that he wrote five of his greatest symphonies while completely deaf.

"No matter how hard you work for success, if your thought is saturated with the fear of failure, it will kill your efforts, neutralize your endeavors and make success impossible."
~ Baudjuin

The Impressionists had to arrange their own art exhibitions because their works were routinely rejected by the Paris Salon. How many of you have heard of the Paris Salon?

A Paris art dealer refused Picasso shelter when he asked if he could bring in his paintings from out of the rain. One hopes that there is justice in this world and that the art dealer eventually went broke.

Van Gogh sold only one painting during his life. And this to the sister of one of his friends for 400 francs (approximately $50). This didn't stop him from completing over 800 paintings.

John Constable's luminous painting Watermeadows at Salisbury was dismissed in 1830 by a judge at the Royal Academy as "a nasty green thing." Name of the judge, anyone? Anyone?

Rodin's father once said, "I have an idiot for a son." Described as the worst pupil in the school, he was rejected three times admittance to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His uncle called him uneducable. Perhaps this gave him food for thought.

Stravinsky was run out of town by an enraged audience and critics after the first performance of the Rite of Spring.

When Pablo Casals reached 95, a young reporter asked him "Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?" Mr. Casals answered, "Because I think I'm making progress."

"Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune;
but great minds rise above them."
~ Washington Irving

Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college. He was described as both "unable and unwilling to learn." No doubt a slow developer.

Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, was encouraged to find work as a servant by her family.

Emily Dickinson had only seven poems published in her lifetime.

15 publishers rejected a manuscript by e. e. cummings. When he finally got it published by his mother, the dedication, printed in uppercase letters, read WITH NO THANKS TO . . . followed by the list of publishers who had rejected his prized offering. Nice going Eddie. Thanks for illustrating that nobody loses all the time.

18 publishers turned down Richard Bach's story about a "soaring eagle." Macmillan finally published Jonathan Livingston Seagull in 1970. By 1975 it had sold more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone.

21 publishers rejected Richard Hooker's humorous war novel, M*A*S*H. He had worked on it for seven years.

22 publishers rejected James Joyce's The Dubliners.

27 publishers rejected Dr. Seuss's first book, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

Jack London received six hundred rejection slips before he sold his first story.

English crime novelist John Creasey got 753 rejection slips before he published 564 books.

William Saroyan accumulated more than a thousand rejections before he had his first literary piece published. Way to not take a hint, Bill!

Gertrude Stein submitted poems to editors for nearly 20 years before one was finally accepted. See . . . a rose is a rose.

I bet you didn't know that John Milton wrote Paradise Lost 16 years after losing his eyesight

One of Professor Pajares's first research efforts came back with a review that began, "There are so many things I don't like about this article I just don't know where to begin."

There is a professor at MIT who offers a course on failure. He does that, he says, because failure is a far more common experience than success. An interviewer once asked him if anybody ever failed the course on failure. He thought a moment and replied, "No, but there were two Incompletes."

Let's end with Woody Allen: "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. Eighty percent of success is showing up."

"There is something to be said for keeping at a thing, isn't there?"
~ Frank Sinatra

Self-Efficacy Site

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."

Transformations

2007-09-11T05:39:00.000-07:00

Any life form in any realm - minerals,vegetable,animal or human - can be said to undergo "enlightenment".

Some rocks undergo a change in their molecular structure, turn into crystals, & so become transparent to the light. Some carbons, under inconceivable heat & pressure, turn into diamonds & some heavy minerals into other, precious stones.

Most crawling reptilians, the most earth bound of all creatures have remained unchanged for millions of years. Some, however, grew feathers & wings & turned into birds, thus defying the force of gravity that had held them for so long. They didn't became better at crawling or walking, but transcended crawling & walking entirely.

Flowers ,the Human Consciousness and ZEN

2007-09-11T05:26:00.000-07:00

Flowers play an important & essential part in the evolution of consciousness of humans. Humans are increasingly drawn to flowers & fascinated by them. With the development of consciousness, flowers provided inspiration to countless humans who later became artists, poets & mystics.

The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciousness. The feelings of joy & love are intrinsically connected to that recognition.

Their scent is delicate & pleasing to humans, & they also bring a fragrance which looks like coming from the realm of spirit.

In a wider sense, we can look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants.

The Buddha is said to have given a "silent sermon" once during which he held up a flower & gazed at it. After a while, one of those present, a monk called Mahakashyapa, began to smile. He is said to have been the only one who had understood the sermon. According to legend, that smile (that is to say, realization) was handed down by 28 successive masters & much later became the origin of Zen.

Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being,their true nature.

Like all life forms, flowers have held special significance for the human spirit, we can say that they are temporary manifestations of the underlying one life, one consciousness.

So when you are alert & contemplate a flower, without naming it mentally, it becomes a window for us into the formless. There is an inner opening, however slight, into the realm of spirit. This is why this "enlightened" life form has played such an important part in the evolution of consciousness.

For example Lotus flower is a central symbol of Buddhism & Hinduism.

Reality

2007-03-28T21:39:00.000-07:00

"If you want to follow a practise, you have to follow someone who is realised. Methods are full of frustrations and give no real satisfaction. Reality has no method. Illusion has many methods, many problems and many concepts. To overcome illusion, or concepts, one should ask, "From where does all this thinking arise?" Thinking is always of other things. To know the thoughtless Reality, no thinking is required. It is where there is no thought. Whatever thing you think of doesn't exist. Everything is He only, and apart from Him there is nothing in the world. Whatever is thought of, makes Him something other than what He is. When thinking ends, what happens? You go to zero.

Awakening is nothing but a complete, thorough understanding. A clear cut understanding of a thing is awakening. Reality is not to be achieved, it is there. After this thorough understanding, nothing is required.

And we expect "awakening" to be some great, mysterious happening! "Reality is not to be achieved, it is there" says it all.

The Alchemist

2007-03-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

One big company was hiring new staff, the question of
the written exam is:
You are driving a car on one big storm night, you are
passing a station,there are three people who are
waiting for the bus; one old
ladywho is dying, one doctor who saved your life
before, one guy/lady who is someone you have been
dreaming to be with.

You can only take one passenger, which one you will
choose? Please explain your reason.
Think about it before you read the following :

I am not sure whether it is some kind of personality
test, since every answer has its reason.

Old lady is going to die, you should save her first,
however, old people always end up dying anyway, you
should take the doctor,because the doctor saved my
life before, this is the perfect chance to pay him
back. At the same time, some people believe that you
can always pay the doctor back in the future, but you
may never be able to find the perfect lover once you
pass this chance.

Seems like this is valid reasoning.

But wait for a moment! Think about infinite
possibilities that nature offers every moment. Can you come up
with better possibilities? (I couldn't!)

Read the finish:

Within the two hundred candidates, the one who has
been hired did not explain his answer, he only simply
stated " Give the car key to the doctor, let the
doctor take the old lady to the hospital and I stay to
wait for the bus with the lady of my dream!"
Everyone I know think the above answer is the best
answer, but there is no one (including myself) can
think of this answer first. Is that because we never
want to give up any advantage we held in our hands
(the car key)?

Our actions flow out of conscious mind. But indeed, we are never really free to reason. That so-called mind has lot of filters.
It is like a computer program: The flow is decided by the initialized variables and incoming data. It is never free.

But an enlightened person is in a state of mind which is not "conscious" in a real sense. It just "Is". The actions are then not born out of the experience. They just happen. It is as if the future pulls yoy towards itself and you don't have to do a thing ...

So what is the source of this future? Obviously it is not something that is thought by you, right? It should necessarily be something outside of you ... It is as if the whole universe acts as one being....

Then what is the connection between universe, you and everything else? Perhaps it is Love?..................

To find out Read The "Alchemist Book".

Why I read and like books?

2007-03-28T21:27:00.001-07:00

I believe in Jnana Yoga (i.e. understanding through knowledge rather than practices or beliefs) so i read books.

Change -- A Universal Law

2007-03-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

A young monk went complaining to the Zen master: the regimen is harsh, joints cramp during meditation, the body aches, the mind drifts..."My son, don't worry, that will change," the master comforted the youth.

Later, he came back. "Thank you very much, master. Now I know the meaning of bliss. I know what I am, what is life's meaning. I feel eternal pleasure."

"My son, don't worry, that will change."

Some thoughts

2007-03-27T04:00:00.000-07:00

Try xoring together the Holy Bible and the Q'ran. Then reverse it and raise it to the power of a Sutra mod Torah. Then you shall have The Knowledge.

Place me in the company of those who seek Truth, but deliver me from those who believe to have found it.

Problems

2007-03-07T03:49:00.000-08:00

The right time to deal with a problem is right now.
whichever time you choose to solve them one of two things will happen:
1.It will grow and grow and grow until it explodes and will disappear for a bit,only to re-emerge and explode in the future
2.It will be get solved.

We can pretend they do/will. But they don’t. And often, the longer we wait the worse they are when we finally get to dealing with them.

So as you ask, “Why wait?”

right? So, the right time to deal with a problem is right now...........

Is Science Neglected in India?

2006-09-13T01:53:00.000-07:00

Today, the importance of research in various fields is clear to everyone. When hundreds of thousands of articles in different fields are published each year, resulting in an increase of knowledge at every moment, peoples run a risk of lagging behind and being backward. The capability of countries to present and publish their scientific research papers represents their scientific development. This is as true in the Basic Sciences as in other fields such as IT.

But as per the Indian Governament's Scientific Advoiser CNR Rao, India is lacking in the Publications of Scientific Papers and If we don't take considerable steps to change this, we have may encounter many problems.
Here are some points he pointed out in his paper, whose link is given at the bottom.

WHEN we gained independence in 1947, we fervently hoped that India would emerge as a progressive, economically sound country, where social justice prevailed. As Gandhiji had pointed out, true freedom meant wiping out unemployment, bridging the gulf between the rich and the poor, banishing communal strife and ensuring that millions of Indians wholeheartedly participated in nation building.
..........
India is one of the few countries, which, from the very beginning, recognized the importance of science in national development. The science policy resolution of 4 March 1958 moved by Pandit Nehru clearly states that we have to secure for the people of the country all the benefits that can accrue from the acquisition and application of scientific knowledge.

Unless we are able to accomplish this rather difficult task, there is the grave danger that India will continue to remain a backward country for a long time. Because of increasing competition as well as an increasing population, we will face even bigger challenges and problems in the years to come, if we do not launch a constructive programme of action geared to transforming India into an economically and morally sound nation.

The educated and enlightened citizens of India have a special responsibility to the nation today, to accomplish the objectives and roles set forth here.

......
Source:http://www.india-seminar.com/2005/547/547%20c.n.r.%20rao.htm

More than a process

2006-09-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

The great software-development-methodology wars never cease to amaze me. Agile, Waterfall, XP, SCRUM, RUP… so many people are so occupied with convincing everyone around them that their favorite methodology is the ultimate answer to practically any question.

Why is this a problem? Because no one methodology will ever be able to solve all problems. The process of developing software is (like almost anything else in our life) context sensitive. With every new project comes a different set of challenges, constraints and expectations. Each methodology has some great things to offer. No methodology, however, can fit as-is to every project.

In a recent post, Ed Gibbs describes how he was disappointed to realize that the stakeholders of a new project refused to adopt Agile development despite of some successful pilots conducted in his company:

“I just assumed that we’d be using our official Agile methodology on this high profile project. […]

[…] I turned out to be on a different page then the rest of the room. There idea appeared to be that we would run this as a traditional project. Traditional for us means a sort of strange version of waterfall, but waterfall none-the-less.”

Here’s the good news. The methodology wars are 90% psychological. If we would just stop using the names of one methodology or another in our discussions, most of our disagreements will disappear. At the end of the day, it all comes down to common sense.

In his post, Ed was troubled by the risk of spending weeks on writing requirement documents for a two-month project. Ed is right. This is a concern. It does not make sense to spend weeks on writing lengthy documents for such a short project. I bet he will be able to convince the other project’s stakeholders that there is a better way to manage the requirements in this project. I bet he will be able to do that without mentioning the word ‘Agile’.

At the same time, it might make sense to take a different approach when it comes to another aspect of development. Maybe the design of the product should be well-thought of before implementation starts due to the complexity of the product and the risk it imposes. Does this approach contradict Agile development? You know what, I don’t really know. What I do know is that for some projects it makes perfect sense.

You see, it doesn’t matter what you call it. Apart from the pseudo-prestige of saying “we use [your-favorite-methodology]”, the name of the methodology has no meaning.

Every methodology offers certain tools, guidelines and practices. That’s great. You have a great variety to choose from. No one says, however, you have to buy the entire package. You should use whatever tools and practices make sense for your current project. Create a customized process that fits perfectly to your needs and the needs of your stakeholders.

When you manage to do that, don’t be tempted to apply your customized process to a different project as-is. You should carefully analyze whether your process fits the new project, and adapt it as needed.

***

One more thing: please don’t comment on the fact that this article is tagged under ‘Agile’ against my own recommendation. That is, unless you really have to… ;)

Project Management

2006-09-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.”
George Bernard Shaw

Here’s a fictional scenario. It takes place in a project postmortem session. The product manager looks in his papers or dashboards and says something like “We had too many defects in this project”. The developers look at each other. They know anything they say will sound like an excuse. “So,” the project manager continues, “I guess we’ll have to do better next time!”

Learning from experience is not that simple. It is simple when you can easily identify cause-and-effect. A child may touch a hot surface once, but as soon as he gets his finger burnt, he will learn to be more careful next time. Cause-and-effect is apparent in this case. But life is more complicated to be described as a sequence of cause-and-effect events. And a software project is no different.

A software project is a dynamic and complex system. To start with, it involves many stakeholders: the customer, the project manager, developers, testers, the development lead, marketing, and management. External forces, such as regulations and competition, often influence the project as well. And then there are of course other projects, which might compete on the same resources. To this inherent complexity, one can also add changes in the requirements, third-party components’ failure, sudden crisis modes, and other unfortunate events.

Learning from experience means examining what happened in the project. It means analyzing what made it a successful project, or what were the problems in the project and how they could have been avoided. But this is not trivial to do in such a complex and dynamic system.

A prerequisite of any analysis process is having meaningful data to analyze. This may sound trivial, but think of the last time you had a project postmortem (or if you prefer a more positive term: “lessons learned” or “retrospect”) session on one of your projects. Chances are that you had in front of you some raw data, such as the number of bugs, the project plan, the different artifacts that were produced as part of the process, etc. But this raw data doesn’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t necessarily tell you what really happened. If you identify, for example, a sudden increase in the number of bugs, you’re probably just looking at a symptom. To really learn something useful from this data you must understand what caused the sudden increase. And the same applies of course to schedule slippage, customers’ complaints, etc. Behind all these symptoms there are people, processes, dynamics, and events, which are not reflected directly in the data generated during the project.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to fill in most of the gaps: maintaining a project log. The project log is used to record what really happened during the project. How do you do that? Quite simply. Every member of the development team and other stakeholders as well, can access it at any time to record an event.

What events should be recorded? Anything that might have an influence on the project. When there’s a change in the requirements — log it. A crisis in a different project caused some interference — log it. An external component was buggy and support was a disaster — log it. The artificial-intelligence-enabled sprinklers system in your office decided it’s time for a cold shower without any apparent reason, and your entire team was not able to work for a week — that’s right, log it.

It might seem funny at first, but think of it: you’re probably using logs to record events in the software you create. Logging events in a software product is used for understanding what went wrong in case of a failure. The exact same idea should be applied to project management. If you want to understand the source of a failure (or a success for that matter), you must first understand what really happened — what were the dynamics that led to this failure (or success).

It’s not about making excuses or preparing a cover-up. The purpose of a project log is to provide you an additional view of the project. Trying to re-create what really happened without a real-time recording is not effective. With all the stress around the project, and the frequency of internal and external events, many things will evade you.

In one of the project-postmortem sessions I attended, one of the developers claimed that it took him a whole week to address a last-minute change in the requirements. Nobody in the room seemed to remember it this way. They were all certain that this particular change request had been implemented in less than a day. With a project log, this wouldn’t have happened. Getting your facts straight is a prerequisite for driving an improvement. If you cannot agree on the facts, you won’t be able to come up with a real improvement plan.

But the best part about having a project log is that you don’t have to wait until the project ends to analyze it. Analyzing problems after they occur is only second best to preventing them altogether. If you analyze your project log on regular basis, you will soon be able to identify certain patterns, which may be the source of potential problems. You will be able to address these potential problems while they are still manageable. You would learn to expect the “unexpected”.

There isn’t any magic about it. The project log will not provide you an answer to every question you have. The dynamics of a software project are often more complex than what you can capture in a sequential log. But a project log is a good start. It provides you a breadcrumb trail to help you find the source of problems and the reasons for successes, so in your next time you can do even better.

Human Rights

2006-09-09T06:32:00.000-07:00

The horrific terror attacks on 11 July 2006 and 8th sep 2006 in Maharashtra have caused outrage across the world but following similar attacks in London, Madrid and New York it comes as no huge surprise. That these attacks seem to have received less attention in the West is another story but Indian citizens have become used to the world ignoring terror attacks in India. More worryingly however is the general attitude of the Indian government to terror attacks on its own citizens and Hindu religious sites. Already this year there have been numerous attacks on civilians and especially children in India.
Further, it is the Indian government itself which is largely responsible for creating the arena of hatred against Hindus and Hindu culture through its policies since Independence. The education system in India openly discriminates against Hindus and Hinduism which fuels the cycle of denigration we see in the Indian media. It is also the government of India which has continued and extended colonial policies designed to impoverish local economies through the taxing and land grabbing of (only) Hindu temples. The government's example is carried through to its logical conclusions with the ethnic cleansing of Hindus from the state of Jammu & Kashmir and in North Eastern India. Parts of India's countryside are also now in the control of Maoist terrorists, supported by their allies in the Indian government and responsible for killings of Hindu villagers and Hindu tribal peoples.

BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL

2006-09-09T06:30:00.000-07:00

Black is beauty.

This is one of the abstract topics I came across and since I am damn jobless now(i have job but it is not helping me to improve my financial condition) and also it is my favorite color, I thought I would write on that. Black- this word reminds me many things like; the night sky, the eyes, the movie (also) and many more. I like this color so much; any thing I buy the first time for myself should be black. I have a strong desire to experience anything first time in black. This craziness can be attributed to me.
I love mystery, things which are not explicit, not quite comprehensible. The night time, at times the moonless pitch dark time is mysterious, when every one on this earth would be cuddled up in their caves, it seems to me as if the whole universe is laughing at us(people) for our cowardly act. It seems to me as if it is calling us for a fantastic exploration, asking us to use our brains in solving the puzzles and mysteries of night and revel in the revelation. This is the dark time when one feels the eternity, the whole thing dark and it is just you and you and you alone with the eternity.
Black is beautiful for it is mysterious and dazzling. It is attractive yet repulsive. It tells one so many things and yet none, it is elegant yet ugly, the paradoxes can be listed on and on. I would go to the extent of defining everything on this earth which is beautiful and also ugly as black. This may sound a little out of scope because beauty or the absence of it depends only on the perspective; something mysterious about the object defines both. If some thing is beautiful, then there is something black about it, something incomprehensible, some thing to be explored and the same holds for the opposite.
Black is beautiful because it gives rise to all other things, I mean all other things literally. Black gives rise to white; here the analogy may be from night to day. A ladys womb is black which gives rise to the amazing life, it is in the black of meditation or peace is the enlightenment born. It is in the black does the union takes place, it is in the black every element is born.
It is in the black when the superior gains power, total control is established, intelligence resonates and everything reaches its peak. All these can be attributed to the color because it is the only color to my knowledge, which has no different shades; it is just the one and only color and is perfect. No varying shades which may cause confusion as to which is mentioned. It is the symbol of power, total control and unity, which is the master of all. It is mysterious for it symbolizes both power and self destructing qualities like hatred, jealously. It is intriguing because it doesnt discriminate those explicitly, leaves it for the sixth sense, which is stimulating (mentally).
Black is absolute and is the supreme.

MOTIVATION

2006-09-09T06:25:00.000-07:00

At times one has to ask this question; what have I achieved in life? I am staring blankly at the monitor as if some answer would jump out right in front of me and would give me quite a pleasure, rather a relief from this tormenting question. At this age of 24, no one is expected to have turned a mountain upside down but is definitely expected to have set a course for that. Have I really planned up to that extent? Am I clear enough about my goals and my future. I do not know, or rather I do not know whether I know, albeit both means and leads to the same conclusion. Anyway I think the former would reflect a clearer state of mind (though relatively).

How time passes off no one realizes, for the amount of time I had in all my engineering days , I could have utilized more efficiently. I have never ever been a born engineer, I here mean the those who behave as If they have sacrificed all their joys and enjoyments for the sake of engineering.
Here I see some of the students who have utilized all the time they had and gone up the ladder, where as there are some others who are left out and are whining now. What is that makes all the difference? How much and what kind of motivation does one require, if at all it can be quantified and qualified according to the personality? I have seen some students being highly active from the day one and continuing the same till the end, for some it is like the gusto in the start and an exponential decay, for some it is the exponential rise, for the rest it is nil from start to finish. What motivates them? I am led astray.
Some have that high school habit or rather passion for the first rank, some think that they will be regarded as one intelligent brain if they have high scores, there are some queers who want to impress the opposite sex. Are these the only things?
So people out there, tell me what motivates/motivated you to achieve whatever you have.

Can God be found?wht bible tells?

2006-09-08T06:16:00.000-07:00

God will be found by those who seek Him.

Proverbs 8:17
Those that seek me early shall find me.
Mt.7:8, Luke 11:9-10
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

God will not be found by those who seek Him.

Psalm 18:41
The cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the Lord, but he answered them not.
Proverbs 1:28
Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer; they shall seek me early but shall not find me.
Lamentations 3:8
Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
Lamentations 3:44
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
Amos 8:12
They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
Luke 13:24
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

What is the solution?

So, What's Your Game?

2006-09-06T03:23:00.000-07:00

I’m an avid Computer games player.

But I’m not an addict. I used to play heavily when I was in college. Nowadays, with a job, my play hours have been reduced to virtually nil. Nevertheless, when I have time to spare I do play small computer games.

Till now i have played games like Age Of Empires,Max Payne,Rise Of Nations,Half -Life and among them Age of Empires and Rise of Nations are my favorites.

So, What's Your Game?

Creativity?

2006-09-06T03:07:00.000-07:00

I was reading some one's blog yesterday and news of his departure from his company to pursue more “creative” endeavors has got me thinking.

What have I done “creatively” in the past years aside from work-related stuff? Virtually nothing … except if you count blogging “creative”.

Ever since graduating from college close to two years ago, I’ve been stuck in the vicious cycle of corporate life. Whatever time I have left from the conundrum of the office I spend on personal pursuits that nourish my sanity, my soul and my spirit – family, friends and reading Books.

So, i am thinking, have I been nourishing myself creatively? The answer – no.

In my school days, I used to draw a lot, and used to do some scientific Experiements & model making.And even during college days i used to do some creative work on computer.

I did a lot of creative stuff then that nourished my creative hunger.But the reality of the working life changed all that …

With my recent penchant to read the blogs of artists, writers the creative hunger is growing but I am unable to satisfy it yet.

About the Painter --Colin Mackenzie (1754-1821)

2006-08-29T03:43:00.000-07:00

Colin Mackenzie (1754-1821) was the first Surveyor General of India. Originally from Scotland, he came to India in 1782 as a member of the Madras Engineers. He took part in numerous map surveys, mainly in southern India, before he was appointed to the post of Surveyor General in 1815.
Beyond his official duties, Mackenzie had a keen interest in the antiquities, religions and customs of India and Java. Amongst his many achievements, he was the first European to discover the Great Stupa at Amaravati. During his travels, Mackenzie collected drawings of monuments, sculptures, people, animals and anything else that caught his interest.
The Mackenzie Collection holds 1,680 drawings made over the course of three decades. It is the largest single collection of Western Drawings in the Prints Drawings and Photographs section of the British Library's Asia Pacific and Africa Collections.

Source:http://www.bl.uk/collections/mackenzie.html

Paintings of My Place in the UK archieves

2006-08-29T03:39:00.001-07:00

Artist: MacKenzie, Colin (1754-1821)
Brief description: Falls of the Ghatprabha river near Gokak (Mysore). 1804
Dates: 1804
Collection: MacKenzie Collection
Medium: pencil
Style: British school
Topics: waterfalls
Portraits:
Places: Gokak; India; Karnataka
Description:
(14) Falls of the Ghatprabha near Gokak. 1804.
Inscribed on front in ink: 'Sketch of the Falls of the Gatpurba near Gokauk. 1804. 175 feet fall. by Mr Manesty.'
Pencil; 8 by 12.25 ins.

http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/indiaofficeselect/OIOCEnqFull.asp?ItemID=8339&RecNo=1&intPDSearchNo=539967

Busy

2006-08-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends i am quit a bit busy with my work.I learnt lot of things these days and i was involved in a project so i didn't find time to post the blogs.

Focusing on Solution or Problem?

2006-05-25T00:16:00.000-07:00

Focus on problem leads to inventions! and Focus on solution leads to Discoveries.

You have Right to vote and Not to Vote --- Vote 49O

2006-05-21T02:04:00.000-07:00

Recently I come across a law which not known to the people.If we can use Indian Panel Code act correctly we can remove the corruption from India. 49 O is code where you can choose not to vote any body.If this vote count increases against the vote earned by politicians then re election we will start.

Don't Hesitate

2006-05-21T02:02:00.000-07:00

The greatest weakness of humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they're still alive.

Talent hunt?

2006-05-09T22:26:00.000-07:00

What kinds of skills or talents do adults use in their chosen professions? Does doing endless math problems enable the gifted writer to write more effectively about the soul of mankind? Does knowing how to conjugate a verb aid the inspired painter in creating a visually appealing product? These are only a few examples of human endeavors that draw on a matrix of human talents, talents that do not always fall within the bounds of the usual classroom experience. Yet these talents exist, and individuals who possess these talents continue to enrich our lives with the products of their talents.

I think to improve the talents we need to work out on the following things.
kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, linguistic, logical and mathematical, musical and spatial abilities.

Technical Creativity or Protection Technique?

2006-04-24T21:52:00.000-07:00

Recently I came to know that many microchips have microscopic images hidden on them by the chip designers.

I don't know what is the intention behind it.But I doubt the security of our Information.As i came across this images i think they may have inserted some circuits which will send all the information stored in our computer.

We have to think about our information security.

Love?

2006-04-15T02:33:00.000-07:00

Love is bitter and sweet, but which is more sweet the bitterness or the sweetness, none has spoken it.