The Change!

Been trying to change the world around me these days. If Mr Os(b)ama can do it, YES I CAN too! Now, I hope someone would give me a Nobel Prize too. Just like they gave him one for the Hope he carries around the world through his speeches. I am worthy because the two of us have so much in common. We just say, we do not do.  We preach. We do not practice.

By the way. Practice What You Preach is a nice album by Testament. Talking of Testament, I bought this album “Souls of Black” the other day. And this Testament has got nothing to do with the Bible. Now, if someone asks me why I like them, I can’t answer properly. There are somethings that you start loving at first sight, in this case, first listen. They sounded heavy and awesome.

Back to changes. I ve changed my sleep patterns. No afternoon naps on weekends. This adds 4-6 more hours to my weekends which I ve started utilizing by listening to more music or maybe go out and have some fun. That is the biggest change that happened this past month. I ve started going out (not going out as in going out with a girl ). The other day, a Twitter Pal told me to let him know if I went to CP without my GF so that he can come and meet me. Just means that I can meet him any time that I go to CP

Twitter has changed a lot too since I joined. It was a great way to meet like minded people, follow them, get insights into the latest developments in fields of interest etc. These days, I hear from the people I follow that there are a lot of Friandsheepers out there. Those guys should be marked as spam and blocked along with those Britney Bots. Oh yeah, those bots have undergone a change to. They @Message at times, which can make Twitter NSFW. :S

Been a month of Birthdays. Tried to remember most of them and send SMS-es atleast on those days, which was a change too, considering that I usually forget them. Thanks to Facebook for reminding me everyday though.

Been quite a change on my Google Reader Blog feeds too. All I see are IndiBloggies award nominees asking for votes. I actually don’t mind them. They ve made me laugh and think. So, they deserve all the accolades that will go their way.

There are some changes I would really love to see though. There are a few people who ask questions for anything and everything I do.  I really hope that they change.

Things are going pretty smoothly. Too much change can be harmful. As they say, speed is not what gets you. Its the sudden stopping that gets you!

Uphill Downhill

Long long time ago, (when I was a really small kid), my dad told me a Folk tale. That of a guy named Naaranathu Bhraanthan (Bhraanthan meaning Eccentric guy in Malayalam). The guy was a nomad. He had a unique ritual everyday. He would roll a really heavy Rock uphill and take it to the top. And he would let it roll downhil when he reached the top and Laugh at the top of his voice when the rock was going down at a very high speed. The moral of the Story? It takes a lot of effort to reach the top, but very little effort to lose it.

Fast forward. 2001. Yours truly started following football. I started loving Manchester United. I liked one particular guy who played for a rival team. And because of the legacy left behind by that guy, I still have a soft corner for that team. The team is Arsenal and the guy was Thierry Henry. Even when the world was celebrating the Ronaldinhos and the Kakas as the world’s best, I rated him way above all of them. Yesterday, he lost my respect and adulation. It is indeed the referee’s fault that the goal was given even though Henry handled the ball, not once, but twice. Why would I stop admiring him now? His statement. He was not the Referee. Mr Henry, how many times has a goal/decision gone against your team and you have argued with the opposition players and the referee about it?

All the respect that you earned in years, you lost it in one single night. The journey uphill may ve been very tough, but I m sure, it took only a few seconds for all of it to come tumbling down.

A Year as a Software Developer

This is not one of those #fail lame@$$, dumb lame@$$ posts that I usually come up with. This is about what I ve learned in a year as a Software Developer in my own lame @$$ way of putting things.

Here I go.

• Unless you are doing Systems programming with pointers and hifi stuff like that, you should not be giving a heck about the algorithm. Do the simplest thing that works. The machines are so powerful that an extra loop won’t do anything.
• You don’t become a good programmer overnight. There are a million best practices, which you can learn only with time. Writing a super cool program which no one else can understand, just because it is the most optimized way to do is not the way to go about it. Every piece of code tells a story. You are an author.
• There are a million libraries available to do a thing. Choose one and use it. Don’t waste time trying to Re-invent the wheel. If you want to, come up with something that is easier to use than the existing ones.
• When you are working in a team, everyone needs to look at different ways of approaching a problem. Decide on the best way and start working on it. Pairing up while coding helps a lot.
• Exceptions/Errors are there for a reason. Make full use of the Error logs to find out the reasons. More often than not, they tell you about a few mistakes you may ve committed.
• Even the best code can contain bugs. You can only reduce them, not eliminate all of them. Someone who writes software (even Open Source) has a responsibility to fix the bugs as much as he/she can.
• Testers who know how a feature should be are the best!

Well, there goes my non lame@$$ post. Will be back with lameness soon! #kthxbai

Cleaning Out My Closet

Been struggling to find stuff to write on lately. Absolutely nothing has been happening in my life or nothing that caught my attention. So, I just thought I ll make a few confessions(as the title suggests) and write some #fail stuff as usual.

This title is also the name of an Eminem track. Though I hate hip-hop, I love listening to this dude. I grew up listening to him. Ok, I half grew up listening to him. Today, I hate Hip Hop. With the exception of Eminem.

I hate cricket. Wait, I don’t hate cricket on the whole. I hate T20. I just love sitting one full day in front of the TV watching a Test Match. Sachin played the most amazing innings in recent times the other day against the Oz in the ODI. To all those who thought that ODI cricket is Dead,get a life Losers!

I am a closet Arsenal fan. Loved them at first sight. United is my first love. But Arsenal holds a special place in my heart. Henry, Pires, Bergkamp, Ljunberg. That era was great. Even now, their style of play is unmatched in the EPL.

Back to lameness.

I ve been winning a lot of Online Lotteries these days. So much that I am a multi billionaire now. I dont need to work anymore.

Back to reality.

I ve been WMAO-ing these days. For those unfamiliar with the term, it means Working my @$$ Off.  Our client however was kind enough to forget the DST and have the daily chat at the same time (IST) as before. Which brings me to DST. It is just an excuse for sleeping an hour extra

Facebook is becoming epic fail with the Live feed and News feed. I still haven’t figured out the exact difference between the two. Twitter introduced List. A pretty cool feature. Some of those I follow were talking about how they listed a few guys as “Jerks”. Some jerks have actually created lists named “Beautiful Girls”. Twitter is not Orkut to Friandsheep and Lavsheep girls you morons!

Shifted to Seesmic Desktop at home and Spaz at Office for Tweeting. Now, I am more of a RT-er than a Tweeter.

Currently Tripping on : Baying of the Hounds – Opeth.

Dear Facebook

Dear Facebook,

I dont like your new look. You just took one step or maybe a few more, backwards. A few months ago, I was yet to understand you. You were complicated. I did finally comprehend how you worked. At that time, I disowned my other social networking account. You along with Twitter helped me out relax during the nights when I was back home and looking for company. Now, I dont like you.

I want the Highlights section back. Would you care to explain what a Live Feed and a News Feed is? Why do you derive pleasure in making things complicated for those who Like you? Why do you give trouble to those trying to tell you “What they are thinking/doing” ? Why do you have a problem with people making friends? Why do you give them so much trouble now? Is old age catching up with you? You were perfectly alright till a few days ago. Now, you are even more #fail than the #fail whale and the Donuts.

Please get back to your good old self. Get well soon!

Yours Faithfully

Milcom

PS : I don’t mind if you give trouble to the Farmers, Underworld Dons, Zookeepers, CoffeeShop Owners etc.