Closing this Blog and Moving to new...

311 posts in last 4 years! - A long way this blog has came across. I have managed to purchase a domain name http://ExcuseMeWorld.com and decided to continue blogging there... However, this blog content will remain here.. I remember I've posted some useful stuffs here eventually... So, they will remain here for ever.

Here by, closing this blog and moving to ExcuseMeWorld.com... Welcome all you there...

Wayanad.

We had a trip to Wayanad two weeks ago. We (classmates of B.E), eventually arrange trips to outstations. It was a four-day trip. I would say this trip was quite different from others. Started from Chennai central on Friday night (1st Oct). Reached Bangalore on the next day morning (2nd Oct)…. Bullshit, I hate this way of writing traditional travel blogs. So, will simply give some highlights in bullet points.

• We went to Kamat Lok Ruchi, a kannadiga hotel located on Bangalore – Mysore highway. I visited the same hotel, one month back (on 7th Sept. For more, refer the post: ). On that day, I told my friend that I may never have a chance to come back to this nice hotel in future. Great to my surprise, I visited the hotel back within short span of time. (looks like a chaos theory or some crap theory, isn’t ? :) )
• We went to a wild life sanctuary in Wayanad (TholPatti Wild Life Sanctuary is the name, I guess). Damn it, I won’t even believe my eyes, the circumference of the sanctuary was 24 km. We took a safari ride. It was really cool. It was a dense forest. We could see only elephants and spotted deers. We couldn’t see tigers, but we were told tigers would be spotted eventually. I asked one of the guards whether they allow any trespassers in to the forest. He said there was a trekking program which allows a group (five people in a group) to trek through the forest. A guide and a gun man are sent along with the trekker group. And the trekking costs 800 R.s. Listen, it is not yet over. Before starting the trekking, all five persons in group have to sign in a paper that the sanctuary is not responsible for bringing them back safely.  Anyway, I am very eager to go, let me know if any four of you are willing to join me :)
• A fabulous but dangerous water falls was MeenMutti. We had to invade through steep rocks and dense forest. Need to walk for almost 3 to 4 km, down the hill and take a return path then!. The water falls was so tall and nice. I took bath and tasted the water. It was so fresh and clean. I felt so exciting when the water was pouring right top on head.
• Kerala cuisine. Mallus eat a lot of fishes. I too like fishes than any other non-veg dishes. Their ghee rice was too good. I liked their life style. (FYI, Ravi! You missed it all!)
• Last but not least – we could easily figure out in the trip that our excitement and interest had degraded little bit. Because, we all turned almost 24.5 years old, and seems getting aged gradually. But I tell you what, you always need to keep your life engaged in same way. Otherwise, you will see it decaying in front of your eyes! I recall this poem quite often: (better readable in Internet Explorer)
  "ஏதேனும் ஒன்றை சார்ந்திரு.
  கவித்துவம்
  தத்துவம், காதல்
  இங்கிதம், சங்கீதம் - இப்படி
  எதையேனும் ஒன்றை சார்ந்திரு.
  இல்லையேல் இந்த உலகம் காணாமல் போய்விடும்"
  

Mail Goggles - Stop sending mails you regret later!

This is really a nice gmail feature from Google Labs. When we are not conscious or emotionally charged, we tend to do things we regret later. Sending hate mail, or offensive mail is an example too. So, this feature 'Mail Goggle' will test your conscience, before your mail is sent! Yes, it will present you simple maths problems to be solved, before your mail is sent (this feature is active during Friday and Saturday late-nights! ). Your email will be sent only when you give correct answer to the problem. Otherwise, you will be advised to have enough bed and water :)

Funny feature, read more and try it out!

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-stop-sending-mail-you-later.html

Case studies on highly scalable architectures.

This site has a lot of articles on scalability. Especially, the case studies on amazon.com, google.com, ebay.com are good!

Nice link to go: http://highscalability.com

Mysore trip

I was so eager to visit the legacy temples in Sri-Rangapatna, near Mysore. I had a chance to go there by bike. From Bangalore, it is 3 hours drive to reach Sri-Rangapatna. (120+ K.M). With my friend, I started at early morning 06:30. We reached 'Kamat Loka Ruchi', a fantastic Karnataka cuisine hotel located on the BangaloreMysore highway. It was very much traditional. We had our break-fast there. They serve special idlies - 'Kaadu Idly' which is wrapped by banana skin. Never miss to stop by the hotel, just in case if you drive on Bangalore-Mysore highway. You'll love it when you are there.

We reached Mysore by 10:30 a.m. One of my classmates, who works in Infosys- Mysore, took us into the beautiful Infy campus. Awesome! You may miss the Mysore palace, but do not miss Infy campus!

Then we parked in front of Mysore palace, and I purchased some show-case goods for my new house. We came back to Sri-Rangapatna by 04:00 P.M. The city resembled as if it was a capital of some kings few centuries ago! Who knows, it might have been too. There is a Ranganathar temple, which is pretty old. I saw the Ranganatha Perumal statue in lying-on-bed-of-snakes position. I had the same feel as Rangarajan Nambi had in Dasavatharam.

We visited some other places too in Sri-Rangapatna. Dippu sultan's grave and Triveni Sangam. The former is a kind of palace cum grave of Dippy, and the later is a joint of three famous rivers in karnataka including kaveri. I had come to the same place during my third-year-days in college. I was here with lot of friends, that time! Now I am alone! thats life!

We rode back to Bangalore. We stopped by 'Kamat Loka Ruchi'. Then left the hotel by 07:00 P.M. We had been talking a lot while riding ... starting right from child-hood to the last day in Oracle! May be that might be the last time, I was there in those places, who knows when I'll get another chance to come here ....

We reached Bangalore by 08:00 P.M in the evening. Thats all the end of my days in Bangalore and the state of Karnataka!


(So, I forgot.. I did not search my wife/house in mysore...! I would have done it!)




Train-bridge - nice view (click on the image to enlarge the view)



Infosys Campus (click on the image to enlarge the view)


Dippu's grave- (click on the image to enlarge the view)



Triveni Sangam -(click on the image to enlarge the view)

On the highway (click on the image to enlarge the view)

Movie: Catch me If you can

No, I am not saying so. It’s the movie name, I am talking about. Released in 2002 and directed by my favorite director Steven Spielberg. The film is based on a real story. One should have enough patience to watch the movie. Here, I am not going to give any review comments or story detail, since it can be found in several other web sites.

Will talk about other few detail. Usually, it’s my habit to ‘understand’ the movie rather than simply watching it. That’s, after watching any movie, I go to google, check out the complete artist detail, filming location, movie mistakes (let’s talk about it later) and etc.

1. Retrieve the artist detail, filming locations from: http://imdb.com
2. Movie mistakes from: http://www.moviemistakes.com/
   

Coming to movie mistakes, it captures logical mistakes in the movie scenes or in screen play. it’s a real fun to know the mistakes made in movies. The http://moviemistakes.com is a best source to find all movie mistakes and laugh out ourselves.

I am totally surprised to see the kind of mistakes people have captured from this film. Especially this one is a too good catch!

At one scene, the hero looks out the window of the jet and says, "there is La Guardia Airport, runway 44." But, one guy has caught it – “Airport runway numbers are derived from their compass heading and go from 01 to 36, so there is no such thing as ‘runway 44’ The runway number should be within 01 to 36, and hence runway 44 is invalid”.

How crazy people are they to catch such mistakes? :)

Also, now I like the kind of audience out there!

Hosting, Domain name - cheap price list.

Following is the list of few companies that offer domain name registration service at cheap price (less than $10 per annum). Note that this is the price only for domain name registration. Hosting and other services will be charged separately.

As on Jul 2008:

Company	Price
NetFirms	$4.95
Yahoo	$4.98
EV1Servers	$5.99
Hostway	$6.95
Stargate	$6.95
Interland	$7.95
Web.com	$7.95
AIT Domains	$7.99
Go Daddy	$8.95
RegisterFly	$9.99

And the Answer is...

Thanks to Shan, and Yasar for spending their time at answering my question in the previous post!

Even I too don’t know the exact answer, but I am happy with your answers. So, you may be called ‘Mr.Smarts’ as going forward! J

Ok. Let’s once again become energetic Comp.Science students and discuss this issue in detail.

Question is: “Whats the most efficient way to sort a million 32-bit integers?”

I went and searched for the answer a lot on google, but no direct answer was found. Google is very smart in asking such interview question, which you probably can’t find from internet.

Let it be.

My answer goes like this:

In Comp.Science, there are lots of classical problems. When you encounter such question, try to see if you can match it with some existing problem. Or, try to find out the base ‘Problem Class/Type’. Yes, you can map most of the problem to a Data Structure or Algorithm!

Consider the priorities and scenarios in this case.

(Before that, remember Sorting Thumb Rule #1: Bubble Sort is a wrong way to go! :) )

1. If memory is a constraint:

Suppose, if you need to sort a million integers in a system which has a tight memory constraint, and then go for External Sorting or Merge Sorting or External Merge Strategy (Combined).

Since, Merge sorting takes only O(nlogn) time (at average case and as well as at worst case)!. The combined External sort mechanism can help you to assist ‘Divide and Conqueror’.

2. If speed is the constraint (and not memory):

Two choices: Quick Sort, Heap Sort, Merge Sort.

Quick Sort: Gives you O(nlogn) speed. But, this sorting approach is little dangerous. Because, if your input (1 million integers) is close to already-sorted form, then the Quick Sort will slow down to the speed of O(n^2) .

Also, Quick Sort is unstable sort! Quick sorting is based on recursion (recursion means stack.. stack means more memory). So, the repeated recursion calls can tend to hog more memory.

But, you stand a good choice to use parallelism. That’s quick sort creates lots of temporary partitions. So, you can distribute these portions across various processing units (say, across a cluster).

One important thing is, if you have N number of processors, each processor can process a partition, than you can complete the sorting by O(nlogn)/N = O(logn) !

That is an extreme performance as it is in Linear Time!

Heap Sort:

Takes very less memory – good point.

Runs at O(nlogn) time, even at worst case – Too good point! :)

Not sure about partitioning.

One should definitely consider HeapSort, when speed is a constraint.

PS: I have NOT taken or NOT got this answer from anywhere/anybody! The answer is purely based on my own thoughts, so it MAY NOT be 100% correct!

Tough Question, Excellent Answer!

Just happened to see this video in Youtube: Barack Obama (U.S Presidential Candidate) is being interviewed at some Google office (a funny interview).

Not sure, why Obama gave an interview at Google (may be a kind of social, or industrial issue based interview).

The interviewer says “winning U.S presidential election and getting a job at Google – both are equally tough”. So, the interviewer throws some tough computer science interview question to Obama just for fun.(If you are Comp.Science student, then you would be already knowing how tough the google interview questions are!)

The question is: “Whats the most efficient way to sort a million 32-bit integers?”

Don’t know how many of you would start thinking and try to answer some thing immediately..!

(Youtube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nnj7r1wCD4 )

But, great to my surprise, Obama suddenly responded “I think… Bubble Sort is the wrong way to go!” – Excellent answer.

I could have clapped, if I were sitting at the audience side. Even a computer science graduate cannot suddenly answer this kind tough question. Anyway, though he didn’t tell in what way it can work, he told an other way in which it cannot work. May be that’s should be a personality identification for some high profile jobs like U.S President :-). All the good luck to Obama!

Let it be.

I am very curious to know how many computer science graduates can bring out the right answer (or any relevant correct answer) for the same question. I’ve some answer in my mind. Don’t know how far it’s correct.

If you are a computer science student, you could refer any books, internet, discuss with people and do etc. Post the answer within one day – I’ve a very nice title waiting for you – if your answer convinces me :)

Question is repeated:

“Whats the most efficient way to sort a million 32-bit integers?”

Software Engineers spoiled the culture!

This is what I hear wherever I go!:

• You Software Engineers spoiled the culture!
• You Software Engineers hiked prices, increased the inflation!
• Because of you guys, the real estate prices gone up!
• Because of you guys, all the prices are going skyrockets!
• And because of you guys, it is not raining nowdays! (Somebody told this too!)

I am just shy to say that I am also a Software Engineer.. Whenever somebody asks what profession I am into, I simply say I do designing and coding work for a specific future of a product module.. that may work or may not work.. and whatever the case it is, I am paid for that.. (totally giving a confused answer to that guy)… so, that the guy gives up his question. (but I am very careful in not using the word ‘software’ in my answer :) )

Whom do you think has spoiled the culture?

Nowadays, boy friend, girl friend, dating & etc – all these jargons start from school level. But, they are controlled by the parents, teachers, and the school administration. But, still they are not convinced and awaiting for the chances. When you get any decent job (note: any job, not only the software jobs!) you stand a good chance to enjoy your life – especially when you are totally away from parents. It’s up to individual’s wish to be in control! If you run out of control, the mistake is yours, don’t blame software jobs. As years pass by any culture will be liberated – that’s a common truth. Just in case if there is no single software job in the country, you will still see the same culture lasting or even it is going worse! Because, it’s matter of time that changes the culture!

Remember, Gandhi was advising people in early 1940’s and people followed him. Now, do you remember how many followers were there in 1990’s, (before Software Jobs come in)? Now how many do you expect in 2008? The culture is being liberated in a proportional order with time!

In 1990’s you blamed cinema actors and models. Now it is the turn for software engineer.

Whom do you think has increased the price?

Software jobs pay multifold of what a common man can get from other jobs. So, because of this, the prices go up. True. But, do you want to stop it? Just hold on.

Some 10 to 20 years back, when Software Jobs were not there in India, still there were people who used to get multifold salaries – say Engineers, Doctors, Collector and etc. At that time, didn’t you see prices were going up? When our fathers were into none of these professions, did we go and blame others for their multifold salaries? No. So, why are you blaming us now?

When the junior generation is getting multifold salaries, growing like rockets, you need to be happy about it and try to join it, if possible.

See, we never thought that an Indian would become world’s No 1 rich. It happened. We never thought that lots of money will flow in India. It is happening now. You should be either working hard to compete with the growing generation, but not to be fighting with them or stopping them from growing.

I can tell you one strong comment from my observation. It’s very easy to win senior generations. Mean, it is very easy to break the records of your father; but, it is always tough to compete with junior generations;

Who knows, our juniors may be getting multifold of what we software engineers are getting now! That’s how it will grow for sure.

Movie: Dasavatharam

Man, I wonder how much things Kamal really knows! He knows right from 12^th century’s lifestyle to George Bush’s body language! Damn. I was wondering throughout the film about his knowledge over various country and culture.

I think Kamal is not much educated; I remember once I’ve read that he didn’t continue studies after 10^th std. Then, wondering how come he knows this much from history and world lifestyle!

I don’t think people, or even educated people might know so much of things technically and historically. I couldn’t understand some of the parts in the movie. I also went and searched for following topics for clarification.

1. Chaos Theory (http://www.extramirchi.com/movies/dasavatharam-chaos-theory-butterfly-effect/)
2. kulothunga cholan II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulothunga_Chola_II)
3. George Bush (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqLvBUSJucg)

And etc.

It was a great surprise to read the information about kulothunga cholan II from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulothunga_Chola_II. Whatever was shown in the movie about this Chola is 90% a real story it seems. I did not know about this Chaos Theory/Butter Fly theory before watching the movie. Surprised to know all these theory. There shouldn’t be any surprise, if Kamal is going to talk about ‘Theory of Automata’, ‘Finite State Machines’ and ‘NP Complexity Algorithms’ in his future films! :-)

George Bush role! First, I was thinking that was some different guy, not Kamal. Because, his body language and accent was looking as if he was a native American. After 15 to 20 minutes passed, I came to know that that was also Kamal!

Balaram Naidu. Audience breaks out in laugh! Damn character. His acting was awesome! Looking as if he was from a typical Telugu family

Fletcher – He can be recommended to James Bond roles!. May be this holly wood can give a try with Kamal.

I simply don’t want to say this movie is good/bad/ok. Those one word comments cannot stand against this movie, when realizing the awesome knowledge of Kamal and the great acting done by Kamal. Dasavatharam can be a PhD topic, to explore the culture and legacy of India starting right from 12^th Century to 21^st Century!

Kudu Kuduppaikaran

It was a Saturday early morning, say 5’o clock. I couldn’t continue sleeping as I was hearing a strange sound continuously. That sound was not new to me. I remember I heard the sound some where at sometime long ago. I woke up and sharpened the ears close to the sound. That was clear then. It was a KuduKuduppai sound. I don’t know how many of you could have heard this sound in your childhood. Not sure, what kind of feeling you have had when you heard the sound of KuduKuduppai at that time. But, I've had a scared feeling at my childhood whenever I heard that sound. The KuduKuduppaikaran (couldn’t find an English equivalent for ‘KuduKuduppaikaran’ anywhere!.) walks along the streets in the mid-night. He has a terrific make-up as if some ghost comes along with him and he tells fortune at each house in the street.

Also, I’ve heard so many rumors about this KuduKuduppaikaran in my childhood. My mom used to tell me that people would not attempt to meet this KuduKuduppaikaran face to face at mid-night, when he is coming on the streets; because he would be coming along with ghosts. Also, my childhood friends used to tell stories that this KuduKuduppaikaran visits grave yards in the midnight and does some special pooja with skulls, bones and then come into streets to tell the fortune. I scared to the maximum about this KuduKuduppaikaran then! Thereafter, whenever I heard this KuduKuduppai sound in the mid-nights, I scared…embraced my mom and used to cover my face using her saree due to fear! Though they were rumors, I didn’t have a choice other than believing it – as I was a child.

Days passed by. I’ve grown. Live in boring Bangalore – where I don’t have any such interesting story tellers. After many years, I heard this sound at an early morning! Instead of scaring, I felt happy this time! I was happy that this guy had not yet gone missing. I just opened my windows and watched around. He was singing some strange song, probably it was a mix of Kannata & Tamil languages. He stopped at each door step and was telling fortune. He was walking on his own way then.

I feel sympathy for him now. He cant get a job it seems. Same time, he doesn’t want to beg. So, he does fortune telling, what his ancestors used to do. Nowadays these people are decreasing in number. In childhood, they told me hoax stories about this KuduKuduppaikaran. Then, who can tell me a correct story about him now?

Mr. Google.

Intially I couldn’t get any results on Google about this KuduKuduppaikaran. But, I didn’t want to give up. Rephrased, refined the keywords and shot again. Then, google returned some shocking news about these KuduKudppai Community. This the result, I’ve got from google (text is in Tamil, better readable in Internet Explorer or FireFox3):

http://photobala.blogspot.com/2007/07/blog-post.html

Shocked. I am really heart-broken to read that this community is denied education & work! I wish them one day they get all the benefits and rights in the society that we’ve today.

I scared to see this people in my childhood. Now, mind-set had totally changed.. I am happy to see such strange things back in life!

Bangalore Life style

Bangalore – I always like the city for following simple reasons:

1. It is very ‘cool’ all around the year.
2. It has a rich look.
3. More towards western culture.
   

Now, I doubt about point #1, as the temperature is increasing drastically. When newspaper talks about environment no body continues reading it (me too). Now, I realize it practically. Last year, this time, I was going out with jerkin. This year, couldn’t even sleep during power-cuts. It is sweating all over the day time. Sure, the environment started the revenge over people who spoiled it.

What can I think of doing some thing for this from my side? Thought of growing some trees. But where? I live in an apartment where everybody shares their wall with neighbors. The only space left for us is stair-case and terrace. Almost, everywhere it is the case in the city!

All I can do is just to recall the ‘Cool’ Bangalore and tell stories to children like ‘You know, once Bangalore was so cool and it was the climate what you see in Ooty and…’

Kamals speaks about Virumandi..

Recently I watched this movie in

Web Hosting companies – review

Here goes my review of hosting companies.

IxWebhosting.com

used their Business Plan service for hosting few of my web sites. The service offered by them is good. But, it is bit costlier when compared to other hosting providers. One drawback what I found with them is none of their hosting product includes unlimited mysql database space. I called up the IxWebhosting.com customer support and they responded that they can’t help with unlimited mysql space. But, their hosting products offer lot of utilities.

hostgator.com

Hostgator is comparatively cheaper. They offer unlimited mysql space, web space and traffic. I didn’t try their hosting service, but my one of my friends said their service was good. Even, I myself found lot of good reviews about Hostgator.com

1and1.com
I have not used their service, but heard from friends that their service is good. Hosting charge is reasonable, neither cheaper nor costlier.

Best 5 movies of all time.

I have been recalling the best 5 movies, I enjoyed watching so far. This is absolutely my personal rating out of all the ones I watched. There are even too good movies, but these are the ones I enjoyed a lot and willing to see again and again. Here goes the listing.

#1: Braveheart (1995) – The most touching movie.

The first thing in the movie that grabbed my attention is theme music. It is Bagpiper music with an unknown sadness. Then the dialogues – most bravery dialogues I ever read. And, then, a beautiful love that lasts only for short time. Very much liked the hero’s real brave heart that continuously fights for freedom. As expected the hero is killed, but his braveness is portrayed over centuries.

No of times watched: More than 5
First time watched: 3 years ago
More info about the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braveheart

#2: Nayagan(1987) – Tamil version of GodFather

All glories to Kamal. I would rate that is a superlative performance of Kamal, out of all his actions. Movie is a complete depiction of a Don’s life right form his childhood to old age. With Maniratnam’s rain drop dialogues, the movie is one of the unforgettables in my life.

No of times watched: 2
First time watched: 1 year ago
More info about the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayagan

#3: Thillu mullu (1981) – Laugh out Louder

Actually, I watched the complete movie . The movie is 27 years old, but still I break out in laugh while watching it. There have been lots of full length comedy movies, but they still stick to formulas like – fights, sentiments, and etc. This movie is a clear exception – I couldn’t see any fight scene or serious scenes going in the movie. A complete full length comedy and happy ending.

No of times watched: 2
First time watched: 2 year ago
More info about the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thillu_Mullu

#4: Anbe Sivam (2003) – Unhappy to hear it is not a hit!

Frankly saying, I didn’t watch the movie completely. But found it so good. I don’t understand why people thrown out this movie to go as a flop. I have not watched any such movies even in any other language. One really needs to be educated or to have lots of common/social sense to understand Kamal’s movies. He should have been very successful actor, but because of little complex stuffs in his movies, they are not hits! I am really unhappy to hear this movie was not a hit!

No of times watched: ~1
First time watched: 2 year ago
More info about the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anbe_Sivam

#5. Jurassic Park (1993) – Till date Thriller

I was a child when I watched this movie first time. It was a big thriller for me at that time. I still feel the same thrill ness when watching this movie even now! Thereafter lots of movies came out based on Dinosaurs and its kind of animals. But, they are not that good to compare with the former. The best thing about Spielberg is, he has been the first guy to make different skins of movies for firs time. Jaws, Star of Wars and this Jurassic Park are samples. I still love the sceneries and the island kind of landscapes coming throughout the movie. I still do not miss Jurassic Park, whenever it is played in TV channels.

No of times watched: 4
First time watched: ~ 14 year ago
More info about the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park

Java/J2EE Project Name proposal.

Choices of names proposed:

1. William Wallace
2. Great Alexander
3. Gladiator
4. Big Boss
5. Ashoka (Why not Indian Names?)
6. Sivaji

I like to choose any one from the list. I would be happy if you could pick up one name and vote it!
Or I can go about choosing one name to separate dev/build release cycles.

So, for whom this name?

I have planned to evaluate Light Weight J2EE Architecture. I am planning to re-engineer SAB with LW J2EE. Or, I am planning to build a biggest sample application that will cover all application life cycle scenarios. I have sent a re-engineering architecture proposal to some of my friends. They wanted me to think about a new one to start from scratch.

I might work on coming up with a new application architecture that will cover

• Complex persistence scenarios
• Complex Integration Scenarios
• Commonly used architectural patterns
• Light Weight J2EE Components trade off over Heave weight Components to satisfy Non-functional requirements.
• A complete product development life cycle (including development guide, source control, various testing process, build maintenance, releases, patch releases, bug tracking, etc)
• Comparing and contrasting different stacks of J2EE/Generic Enterprise application.

Let me work on it for some times.

Fastest Ride on road, ever!

I was so excited to ride my bike towards home. I had planned to take my bike to home. So, I loaded the bike into a Volvo. I got down from Volvo, 80 k.m away form home. Decided to ride. I think it was NH-45, if I am not wrong.

I revved up the engine, and picked up high speed on the road. Here goes all the fun!
It was very morning 7:15 AM. I started from Dindigal bye-pass road. I was very sure about the route. There is a junction, just after Dindigal town. It separates NHes. So, I was riding so fast to reach the junction. Seems, people were working on repairing the roads. So, they kept lots of ‘Take Diversion’ boards. I was going so fast, so, I took quick cuts, as soon I saw the boards. After passing ahead some kilometers, I had a slight doubt whether I was going in right direction. Because, I did not have seen the junction that far! One stranger on the road, made it sure that I was going in wrong route! I asked that guy why I didn’t reach the junction even after riding about 5 km. He said that the ‘Take Diversion’ boards should have misguided me! (There is a joke in tamil movie: Vivek is searching for his interview venue, but he is misrouted to Tirupati!, because of ‘Take Diversion’ boards). At least in my case, I went only for 5 km in wrong direction. (At least, I am lucky that I was not misrouted to Kanyakumari!)

The road was so neat and wide that anyone would drive mad. I am too not an exempt, but not a mad. In my childhood, I traveled many times on the roads by corporation buses. But, they were slow sometimes. I was wondering why not they could be fast on free NH roads.

But, now I am doing it. I was overtaking any vehicle running in front of me. I remember I was driving at 80kmph continuously for 15 minutes, and crossed about 20 km within 15 minutes.
Averaging the speed at 70 to 75 kmph, I passed ahead of 75 km within 1 hour 10 minutes. Our corporation buses take 2 to 2 and half hours to cross the same distance.

I should say, I got so excited at this ride. The white bars on the road were going back so faster; the trees were going back; I felt like I was, kind of flying alone; I realized every tree, plant, on the road was happy! I wanted to still ride, even after reaching home.

Facts behind the ride:

• It is the fastest journey on earth in my life. (Volvos, Sadapdhi express couldn’t win! :-))
• It took 1 hour and 7 minutes to cross 77 Km (Including break). Most of the time hitting 80+ kmph, and averaging at the speed at 75 kmph.
• I overtook all the vehicles hit at my eye-sight. No other vehicle overtook me! 
• I was listening to the music, while driving for the whole 75 km. (I had to take care of vehicles coming/going in the front only. No need to look back! Because, I am sure, no body is going to come closer to me in that speed)
• I have not set my front mirrors, during the ride. – (reason is same as above)
• I was trying to take a right-cut at full speed, the bike was about to skid, I controlled it (just like it happens always!)
• By reading this post, do not conclude that I am a mad driver. I am very careful at driving, you won’t believe that! :)

The 300th Blog post!

This post is somewhat special. Yes, it is the 300th post in my blog, following 4 years of blogging history! I published my first post on 5th Oct 2004. Time has gone in its own way.

Here goes my personal view on blogging:

What do you like about blogging?

I like to blog. Either, let it be a good moment or bad moment. Blog can be thought as log for life. My blog captures my lifestyle, almost all incidents in the recent years. If I want to recap what I have done in the past, I go through my blog simply. So, I like blogging.

How frequently do you blog?

Depends. Depends on mood, time availability and etc.

How much time does it take to publish a single post?

I usually do not think too much while writing a post :-) I just put in whatever it comes to my mind. It usually takes less than 20 minutes. Also, I type faster on keyboard. So, it does not take much time for me.

What do you like to post and what not?

I prefer posting only personal stuffs. I do not like posting any social matters. Because, it leads to unwanted issues. Also, I do not want to post any specific technical junks/code here. Because, I like to keep the blog to be a complete personal space. I write about technical stuffs here: http://java-j2ee-architecture.blogspot.com/.

Whom do you think, your readers?

Actually none. I do not think about any readers/audience while writing a post. As I said already, it is personal stuff. But, I am forwarding some posts to some people, thinking their interest will also be on the same lines. However, all the readers are warmly welcome!

Thanks to all readers! Happy Blogging!

The real Hitler's speech!

When somebody is arrogant or very aggressive, we curse him as Hitler. Then, just thought how the real Hitler should have lived. I watched this video 'Hitler's speech' in youtube.! damn, he throws sparkles in his speech. Though I could not understand his language, I am getting scarred to see his body language. Till date, I never ever seen any politician or any leader has spoken in that aggressive/motivating style! This 55 seconds speech can wake up any lazy human being.

ATM Machines..! Who has written?

It was late night. I reached my home by a taxi. As the taxi driver did not have change, I asked him to park at a near by ATM. I came running to the ATM Machine to draw some hundreds. Here goes my interaction with the ATM:
---
Enter the card no: xxxx

Enter the Amount: 400

Choose Type: Saving Account

Confirm: OK

Output: Error: Please enter amount only in multiples of hundred (100).

---

I repeat the same use cases multiple times but, the output is the same error message. Even, I cross checked many times whether 400 is entered correctly. I am totally confused myself, whether 400 is divisible by hundred or not! Then, I couldn’t understand why the error message was displayed. I ran to another ATM, and I was getting some other error message there. Error: You have exceeded the maximum limit. (I have not drawn any money using my card for the last two days). Are the machines gone drunk?

Whenever, the ATM machines are ‘out of service’, I am not upset. Because, there might be ‘N’ number of reasons. It is agreeable. But, when they display such misleading/incorrect error messages, I easily get tensed. I am searching for the guy, who has written that kind of software.

It is not that, only the functional deviations are bugs. Also, if a system does not handle a error situation, or does not display a proper error message, then that is also a bug. It is a serious bug, at customer perspective. Leave the customers aside. Just few questions to the guy, who has developed the ATM software:

1. With this incorrect error message, how will you find out what has gone wrong/failed in the system?
2. Without knowing the actual failure, how are you going to fix it?
3. What do you think, either an end user (me), or the bank people can react to the incorrect error message?

Java: Collest bug, ever seen!

Recently, I was a fixing a bug (which was introduced by me!). The bug is very silly, you may never catch it!

Issue is, a there is a java bean factory class with factory methods. In one of the factory method, a recursive call was there (which was not supposed to be), it was causing a stack overflow exception.

The factory method is supposed to be like this,

(I am providing a sample code, not actual code)

public Employee newEmployeeImpl()
{
return (Employee)new EmployeeImpl();
}

Instead of this, the code was mistakenly written as,

public Employee newEmployeeImpl()
{
return (Employee)newEmployeeImpl(); //there is no space in between new and EmployeeImpl!
}

It was accidentally typed without leaving a space between new and EmployeeImpl class. It is syntactically correct. So, the compiler didnt crip for the expression. But, at runtime, it goes as a recursive call!

So, the newEmployeeImpl() factory is getting called at infinite number of times and results in Stack Overflow Exception...

I laughed out to myself when I found this issue!

I am a J2EE Architect! – Says Sun Microsystems.

Now, it is mid-night 12:33 AM. A windy night and rain is pouring heavily outside. Weather is so cool, and my heart is too. Though I am feeling like running outside and shout louder in the rain…, I can not do that now. Because, I am 24, and yet, the time is mid night 12.

The much awaited result is out..! I have been waiting for this result, since last 3 to 4 weeks. My Architect exam result. Why I am so excited about this is, I am only 23.7 years old – too young to have Architect Certified! :-)

Out of all my learnings till date, I consider this exam is pretty worth. The perspective of looking at software systems has changed, after looking them through the architect view. I don’t see software as a program or piece of code; I see software is assembled of components and constructs. They are like bricks and stones that give the infrastructure (I am more or less has become as a mechanic!)

I will cherish this great moment till life long. Let me recall, what I have done, lost, tried and given up to get this Architect Exam.

The Exam has 3 parts. In Part-I, we need to answer for multiple-choice questions. In Part-II, we need to workout a J2EE based architectural solution, for the problem given by Sun Microsystems. In Part-III, questions will be asked from our Part-II solution. Part-III is an essay type exam. We need to answer their questions in paragraphs.

Sun Certified Enterprise Architect – Part I

Date : 25^th Sept 2007

I have already published a post about this Part I exam, here: http://manivannan57.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

Sun Certified Enterprise Architect – Part II (Assignment)

Date: 28t^h Feb 2008

Here is the stage, you host your skills! I registered for the part II – Assignment exam. I received the assignment, and started reading the requirements about a week. I understood what the requirements were, but did not find even a single clue about how to derive solution

I started reading advises from saloon forum http://saloon.javaranch.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=26 at my free times. Needless to say, more we listen to people’s advice, the more we get confused. So, I gave up reading the forum, as it had ‘N’ number of views, arguments, advises, approaches and etc. (But, one should really read through the forum, just to see how different people mind can think to derive a solution for a given single problem! :-) )

I was helpless to bring solution and to verify my solution is correct. Because, I have not met any real world architects so far. Also, I had a fear that, they can misguide me to give a Design Solution instead of the required Architectural solution. Because, most of the techies do not distinguish a ‘Design’ and an ‘Architecture’. (And there are cases, where people have failed in the exam, as they submitted a design kind of solution rather than the architectural solution).

I’ve decided to keep my architectural solution very simple and straight-forward. I have strongly decided not to use any Framework (that is not a part of J2EE) in my solution. I did so.

The difficult part in my assignment, which I feel is, session handling decision. I needed to give a session handling solution for JSP and Swing based clients. First, I have decided an approach. I went out for coffee and cam back, and then changed the approach. I went out, looked at the children playing in the street, cam back then, and changed the approach. Likewise, it got changed many times, that I cannot even remember.

I was very strong in one thing – the examiner should be able to understand my architectural solution without any difficulties. Keeping that in mind, I put lot of details in supporting documents. I explained the approach over several pages; also, clarified the reason why I opted that approach over others.

Also, I have presented a Traceability Matrix for Functional and Non Functional requirements. That might be impressive. But, that is dangerous too. If I forget to add any requirement in the Matrix, then he will catch me. I spent lot of time to make sure that all the requirements are addressed in the Matrix table.

That’s all.

One early morning I submitted the assignment to Sun.

Sun Certified Enterprise Architect – Part III (Theory Exam)

This exam was an interesting one. We need to write the answers as paragraphs. No! we cant fill the paragraphs with some legacy stories; the answer we provide here will have to match with the architectural solution submitted for Part-II. So, I reloaded all the assignment requirements and my solution into my memory, before taking up this exam.

All of the questions were about Non Functional requirements. That’s, about performance scalability and the kind of stuffs. I gave only valid points to fill up the paragraph. I repeated most of the lines from my Part-II supporting documents. Because, it should match right.

Finally

Part II & Part III Score: 88% (Pass)

Part I Score: 95% (Pass)

Overall Grade: Pass

That’s it!

I am so excited to get passed in this exam. I am happy that I have passed in the top most level of J2EE exam, in this young age. Many people advised me that one should have minimum 6 to 8 years of experience in designing and architecting software applications to give such exams. But, me poor guy has only 2 and half years. But, I have endless passions to do.

This is the last level of the exam. So, I have decided to not to take any more certification exams in the future.

Dream #2: Stamina.

My mom is 55 years old (I am the only son and was born 14 years after their marriage). She used to get up at 5 o clock in the morning, irrespective of whatever the time, she goes to bed. She is able to do all the house work through out the day without showing any tiredness. I force her not to do any work in this age, and take enough rest. She says it has become her routine, and she can not stop doing work.

I am not even 24. But, I can not even do a half of the manual work that she does in these days. Because, for me too, it has become a routine – not to do any manual work. I am not strength less; but, am stamina-less, just like every other young living today. Spending whole of the day with computer, and living a ‘virtual’ life, spoils our stamina. You can really realize it, when you have to run for some distance at emergency.

I have a dream to mould my body just like I want – a six pack abs, muscles over muscles, very strong fist, and totally a flat body. It is not a crazy dream to attract somebody! :-) It is a kind of dream, that every one should consider for themselves too.

Let’s go one by one.

Six pack abs – If you have recently watched ‘Om Shanti Om’, then you might be knowing a lot about Six Pack Abs (unluckily, I have not watched the movie) . Shah Ruk Khan had hardly tried for more than 4 months with strict diet and exercise to get his six pack abs. If you watch that song, in which Shah Ruk appears without his shirt, don’t miss to look at his Abs. It is very tight and tough. Too hard to get such Abs. It gives a flat shape to the whole body. Without maintaining the Abs, a man cannot maintain the body; without maintaining the body, a man cannot be a complete man! It’s my craze to have my Six Pack Abs!



Muscles over Muscles – The world could not have forgotten the great martial artist ‘Bruce Lee’ so early. He didn’t simply have muscles. His peer fighters used to say, he had muscles over muscles. A different kind of muscle structure. Even, Lee too said many times that the Abs muscle is so important than anything else. If you get some time, you can google for Lee’s strength and workouts; you will get amazing info.



Very strong fist - I want my fist to have more power. To carry or to pull objects. Or to do any thing manually, we require lots of hand power.

Flat body - None of the animals has belly; none of the animals put over weight; none of the animals eats unnecessarily. Only we human being do it. We need to remember that any unnecessary or etc flesh in the body can lead to any disease. I am not talking about fitness stuffs here; I am talking about keeping the body flat and tight. Its good health wise and look wise.

To tell in frank, its my dream to have a body with aforesaid things. Its not a crazy dream. It’s a meaningful dream.

Dream #1: Harley Davidson

Here I go about writing my (costliest) dreams one by one:

Harley Davidson Ride..
(click on the image to enlarge)

I am becoming crazy about different bike models in these days. Harley Davidson is my craze. I like big bikes with full of guts! Harley is a charming bike, with 1100 or more CC power. I have a passion to ride Harley Davidson over long high-ways about several hundred kilometers.

Harley Davidson bike price ranges from US $16000 to US $26000! (6 lac Rs to 10 lac Rs). The bikes are not manufactured or sold in India. If it is to be imported from US, with 60% import duty, then calculate the net price!

To ride such bikes, one should really have a strong body indeed. A tight body, with lots of stamina. Yes, I wish I can mould my body to fit in.

If I become rich enough one day, then I will definitely buy a Harley Davidson. I wish to ride the Harley on the street where I was born!

(click on the image to enlarge)

American Gangsters (2007)

American Gangsters. Recently watched this movie. A crime movie, based on a true story (that’s what the film title says). Denzel Washington (a drug lord) and Russel Crowe (detective) drive the film. Hope, you don’t mind to read the story or screenplay using Google.

I couldn’t say in a single word, whether the movie is good or not. Sure, everyone will get confused like me, after watching this movie :-). If you have not watched ‘GodFather’ or that kind of movies already, you may find this movie in a different skin. Otherwise, you have to keenly search scene by scene what is different or what is interesting in it.

The film rolls over 1970 era. The film skin almost Black and White. I slept unconsciously many times, while watching it.



Nothing was much interesting until it comes to climax. Especially, I liked the conversation going between Denzel and Russel before climax. Denzel is arrested and released at the end, what else then?! It is incomplete! What did he do then … No clues.

As it was already said in the title that the film was based on a true story, one cannot go on arguing why this is so and that is so... Because, this is not based on the imagination of a director or some body else. It’s a true story. Full stop.

Still, I am confused whether the movie is good or not. The problem is, we ‘used to’ watch these kind of movies.

Feeling free, peaceful..

I have lots of free time now; bad thing is, I don’t know what to do in free times; In the last ten years, I was rarely free. I was such an ignorant that I learnt to work and not to enjoy life. Whenever I get free time, I am stuck! If I think of at least doing my wish list stuff, then, definitely I will be screwed up technically. So, I don’t want to do that.

Music/guitar class, Hindi class, Painting class are in consideration.

Die Hard or Live Free [Not a movie review]

I make sure my mobile is safe in pocket, helmet is properly set, fuel is sufficient... Seated at bike, I commit myself to reach the destination in 20 minutes, at any cost... Accelerate it, go faster... faster and faster... as far as it can go faster... Looking at the speedometer, my heart beats increase... the bike touches 60.. 70.. and then 80.. and then....can't see... I am going alone in the road, just like a jet... Reach the destination in 25 minutes... - I feel unhappy as I come late by 5 min (though I had started several hours late).

That's how I learnt to live the life; a hasty life; full of hurry; full of useless commitments; unnecessary worries for unnecessary things; hard work that kills the body and brain; "Get it done at any cost - We must do it." - this was the command from brain to heart always!

I just want to get rid of all these hells and go to the river bed in my home town, raise a corp there and live a peaceful life.. I dont know how long I am going to live in this planet, but I am really scared that I am going to live every single minute in a hurry or working out some tough subject.

I am seriously thinking of freely living. To live every day as there is no more tomorrow. I am not going to stop working also. But, at least not going live this life style for sure; more minutes for me; more minutes for life.

Jargons of Java Releases!

It's nice to have such question! Also, nice to explain such things. There are so many jargons with Java releases, which confuse people. My friend has asked a fundo question. He is a too very fundo..!! I am hereby posting the mail, hoping it would be useful.

----------------------Forwarded Message------------
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:54:20 -0800 (PST)
From: Manivannan yahoo.com
Subject: Re: one small basic doubt]
To: ravishankar.dhamodharan

Hi Ravi,

How do you? Long, since heard from you.
Nice doubt Ravi! I often came across people having this doubt in common. Please find my comments below.

JDK/J2SDK – JDK is a SDK for Java. After standardizing Java as a ‘technology’ JDK was re-branded to J2SDK. Yes, they are same (alias).

Java/J2SE – Earlier Java release went like Java1.1, Java1.3 and etc. Later up on, Java releases are standardized as J2SE. So, J2SE1.5 or Java 1.5 or J2SE5.0 or Tiger – they refer to same thing – ‘A version of Java release’. Also, Sun used to give pet names to Java releases like Tiger (Java1.5) and Mustang (Java1.6) and Dolphin (Java1.7 – coming soon).

Ravi, If I am not wrong, JDK is obsolete name, and Sun will no more use the name ‘JDK’.So, you can download J2SDK’s instead of JDK.Doesn’t matter, it’s an alias name for JDK.

If you don’t bother, I am blogging this mail, hoping it would be useful!

-Mani

------- Original Message --------
Subject: one small basic doubt
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:55:24 +0530
From:ravishankar.dhamodharan
To:Manivannan yahoo.com


Mani,
Is j2se1.4 is the java 2 standard edition is one and the same as the jdk1.4 java development kit and the j2sdk1.4 is the java 2 software development kit. Am I right.
My understanding is j2se1.4 and jdk1.4 is the same and the j2sdk1.4 is different.
The following which depicts the same I think.

Mani when I tried to download the jdk1.4 for Linux it takes me to download the j2sdk1.4. I don’t want j2sdk to be installed in the machine , I want only jdk. Where to download , in sun site it takes me like that.
Thanks,
Ravi.

Ugly and Handsome.

I am scared at some times; scared of people; scared of situations; scared of future; scared of etc in life. Bad moments in life are they, when I look scary. I do all the mistakes when I am scary. I hate myself to be scared. I feel I am ugly when I am scared.

The only moments when I‘ve done big things are when I was very bold. Bold like a warrior. I see myself handsome when I am bold.

Story heroes can make us bold sometimes. My favorite story hero is GodFather. Whenever, the story or the name strikes at mind, I am bold. I am looking handsome as it comes to my mind now :-)