Monday, April 23, 2007

End of American Idol: Sanjay is out

Finally the speculation is over! Sanjay has been voted out of the American Idol competition. So whats next
a) No need to watch the American Idol any more since the element of gossip, conspiracy and rumor are over
b) Simon can breath a sigh of relief since his job is safe. I am sure there were not many other employers for the caustic Simon.
c)Britney Spears attempts to team up with Sanjay to woo the American teens who continue to be overtaken by weird style over substance. I guess that is teenage phenom all about!!!
d) Howard Stern will need to figure out another way to bring down the American Idol. For now, he needs to focus to woo audience for his talk show
e) George Bush puts his confused smile when having dinner with Sanjay for he could not figure out the wide smile on every comment that he made
For me, I don't watch American Idol but I enjoyed blogging on it.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Political Correctness and freedom of speech

The only reason I write a blog entry on this story is my continuous surprise at the increasing clout of political correctness over freedom of speech. I assume there are multitudes of opinions over this debate but I am just amazed if one cannot express one's opinion freely on a talk show then it marks the death of freedom of speech. Yes, I am referring to the latest Dan Immus incident! After that incident the last frontier of free expression is blogging.

But I am predicting the censorship, code of conduct, enforcement rules for the blogsphere space in the near future. It is a matter of time when due to the blogsphere influence, reach and access, there will be so these called controlling forces establishing a modus operandi. The world of blogging will change forever. It will be strangled, initially by moral code of conduct and later by a representative elected body. Then there will be this significant mass of blogging community and organizations that will align with these protocols and regulations and choke themselves to the death of their purpose. Yes, there will be still a handful that will continue to be unconstrained. These exceptions will be ridiculed as outcasts in certain quarters of the society. But there will be a handful of loyal followers and believers in these exception blogger/blog sites . Yet these sites will die a natural death. Well Don Immus paid a penalty and his case of termination and demise from CBS reflects poorly on our social maturity. Till someone strikes on my blog site, I vouch to express my mind and not worry about political correctness.

Monday, April 09, 2007

The Great Move

We are almost done with a move to a new office space. Yes it was a painful but fruitful outcome of a long wait for the new office space. Yes, I speak for the 100 odd people who were in the abandoned world of 15810 office spaces. They were abandoned since even the conference room was called Annex I and II as if the office space was adjunct to the main office space. The move was delayed like any software projects by almost 3 months. Like software projects the reasons for the delay were beyond the control of the project manager. All past, current and future project managers say Amen.

Every office move brings his gossip and reaction. For the carefree geek it is nice to have a new surrounding for a day. Since all they do is gaze at the laptop screen. For the aspiring, there is always that desire to get an office or the corner cube. I guess having an office is quintessential status of position, power. I am sure it epitomizes a lot to the person aspiring it but believe it or not, it is a loss proposition in its entirety. First, your peers are envious of your preferential treatment by the boss. Secondly, boss is not happy about you continuously pestering him for the room based on your new role. Finally and most importantly, you loose the sense of belongingness to the nucleus of action, your own very source of strength.

But having blabbered about the office space demands, the time for assignments is there. A special committee is constituted to strategize about assignments. The layouts are laid out. The pencils are down. The big architectural diagrams are spread on the tables. The wise men are thinking. Every committee member is with his agenda, favorites. Long hours are spent on how to seat individuals. All kinds of complex algorithms are evaluated since every factor counted (proximity to team members, seniority, position, personality, prior space etc).Finally the plan is unveiled. Office space is ready and the D-Day arrives. The move begins. Oops, one of the most important rooms (UPS equipment) is getting heated. No air conditioning vent in that aisle. Poor engineering design, but the workaround of blowing a fan and keeping the door open to give background music is as creative as it gets.

Oops, we forgot this individual from the list but why? This person is not a direct report to the committee members. No worries. We can accommodate no problems. Yikes, now what? We just discovered we are short by 10 spaces. How can that be? I guess we are growing faster than we plan which is good sign.

To be contd….

Friday, April 06, 2007

Employee Recognition Nite: Last Chapter

Its time to close the blog series of the Employee Recognition Nite. I think Nagu's persistence and committment to go from desk to desk to secure popularity votes was reflective in the results. The results were decisively in his favor 82% to 18%. Apart from the Chennai clan clout, the messsage is loud and clear: persistence, perseverance and pushing can accomplish everything. But overall it was fun and it was good to see more people read my musings. I hope everyone continues to bookmark my blog and read them every now and then and share their comments and provide feedback. I do update the blog every 7 days if not sooner. I am trying hard to get more frequent and will work towards it. Final Note: Most Recognized Employee Of the Year is Elumalai, Nagarajan :)

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

CNSI Employee Recognition Nite Contd..

I have had most written and verbal feedback on this blog. hence the second write-up. The question of the day is that did my blog have more hits because of this blog entry or because of the energy radiant character of Nagu who is one of the central themes of the blog. Nagu for people who may not know is now not only running for the next mascot of CNSI ( if not CNSI atleast CNSI Chennai) but also trying his best to be the photo face of the year. I am waiting to see the pictures from the Employee Recognition Nite. The insider news is that Nagu is featuring in every 3rd picture. Ofcourse the CNSI censor board (guess who) is blocking some pictures ( Oh Lord what happened to free information exchange).Yep they were taken after the official hours of the event was over and people were in their natural no hold bars mode. But I guess they are in the best interest of the team as a whole even though it expressed the team spirit and cohesiveness among the players. Anyway I am starting the first poll! Please do express on the popularity question of the week!