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.

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.

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….

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 :)

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!

CNSI Employee Recognition Night

Today my company honored and celebrated the Employee Recognition Night after a hiatus of 1 year. Its no longer called the Winter Gala and more appropriately called Employee Recognition Night but I could not comprehend the difference between them. Nonethless, a great endeavor on part of the CNSI owners and shows their committment to the employees. So here are the Key Highlights

a) Cal Ripken Jr. was the Chief Guest. For people who did not know that, all they needed to do was stroll to the hotel bar where they served decent scotch and you could meet the Hall of Famer.

b) Vik Mehta was hilarious and his ususal self and made some funny and yes sometimes offensive remarks. Always a great show but I am disappointed as he reads his jokes and one liners! And Vik some of your jokes are repetitive for people like me who have attended this event for some years now

c) Nagu, (for people who don't know him he is Oracle DBA for the Washington project) was in every frame clicked by the photographer that night. We could use him as background on our CNSI logo

d) Our President, was precise and thankful but tad bit slow but it was much concise than the previous ones

e) Vivek Gore was standing up and cheering on on every employee that was recognized. Either he did not have a seat on his table or was just naturally excited about the recognition. I could not since I was getting ready to dance!

f) Yes we danced to all tunes Indian, Punjabi, English, Arabic and Finally TAMIL :)

g) Aggh..the nice thing there were four lucky winners who get the BMW. Yes they are mortgaged for 3 years ..you know what i mean...:)

But overall a good event ,people had a nice time and it was a good break and a workout for me personally... Your comments..

Gmail Server is down!!!

This is not the first time that Google mail has been down. Earlier it used to be the case that is a beta version of the mail but now after being almost 2 years into full operations these errors are a pointer to that Google is not immune to software glitches. We blame Microsoft but we cherish Apple and then apple becomes a self serving entity.The fact is that as the companies grow they are unable to maintain the same verve, enthusiasm and drive that made them reach their glory days. Look at the error message..."Oops the system is unable to perform your operation" If we are to implement such messages in our customer applications it is only considered lame but since it is Google people would recognize the coolness and the openeness of the developer to express their ideas. Apart from the growing clout of Google two things are crystal clear a) they cannot maintain the same velocity of change and innovation and b) they are still not a software services company since such downtime issues warrant more maturity in delivery and handling. What do you think ?

Persistence is Wow!! We can all use some of it!

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr the 30th President of US had to say this on Persistence

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

I think this is so remarkably true in my personal and professional life experiences. Just keep on plugging in and we shall work through all the issues surrounding us. After all it is all about Karma!!

American Idol: Sanjay Malakar!!!!

I have never watched American Idol till yesterday. The reason for me to watch was because of Sanjay Malakar, an American born Indian from Federal Way, Washington. Yes, I watched it more out of curiosity of seeing him. Yes, I have to admit, I am just a music listener and by no stretch a discerning music buff. I have yet to vote for him and maybe I never participate in this process since there is already a perception that he is getting votes because of his nationality. Well if open nationwide voting are the rules of the game then everyone should accept it. I guess he might be getting a lot of support from the Indian community but I guess that is pretty much the case for every participant. No doubt, it is different case with the Indian population ( well it helps you in some cases). Again, I am not music guy to say whether he is deserving or not but he stands out of the crowd. As I saw the results today, I could see the clear isolation of Sanjay. Every participant who made it to the next round atleast shared a hug with the fellow participants but poor Sanjay was left to enjoy and savor his relief and joy into the next round with a lonely smile all by himself. Yes, by no stretch of imagination he is going to be theAmerican Idol but he is definitely a star. Why do I say so? The nation watched a young american girl (Ashley) cried crazy. Cried out of joy and disbelief after meeting with her star in Sanjay Malakar. Good Luck Sanjay!!!!

Bob Woolmer: Cricketing Pressure Leads to Death

I am deeply saddened by the untimely death of Pakistan Cricket Coach Bob Woolmer. Today's sport have such high expectations and pressure that it is beyond words. Pakistan unexpected departure from the World Cup after getting defeated at the hands of rookies Ireland caused a lot of eyebrows and shouts for firing of the captain, coach and lot of other players on the team. But that pressure resulting in death just leaves me dumbfounded. My sincere condolences to the family of the coach!! I just wish people relaxed a bit and stop these money spinners ( bookies, advertisement companies, sponsors) creating bigger than life sized personalities and teams that the pressure is so onerous that we see such an unforntunate incident. The World Cup spirits are marred! Sportsmanship, the ethos of sports is getting lost in the ultra competitvness of the nations and players. My disappointment with the India team being outplayed by Bangladesh is just blown away! The Gentleman's game is on its lowest ebb!!!

Cricket World Cup Begins: India vs. Bangladesh

Well the world Cup Cricket has begun few days back and had a share of interesting results like the tie between Ireland and Zimbave but for the 1 billion Indians, the world cup starts today as India takes on Bangladesh. yes, some would say, for us the Pakistan loss to WestIndies was a good omen but the saga starts today.....
We are in trouble,...lost Sehwag in 2nd over and his heir apparent Robin Uthappa was back after not scoring much. Tendulkar, he is still playing was back after a painful stint of 7 runs. all of a sudden Bangladesh looked like Australia. Mr. Dependable Rahul Dravid is no longer dependable apart from a dependable friend (his persistence with Sehwag shows his dependability as a friend). Well lets see how far Ganguly and Yuvraj takes us...
Aagh..before all the Pakistani and the Indian community go wild about the lack of performance by the Indian team ....lets see how the match rolls on

Catch Me If You Can

Do you remember Frank Abagnale Jr. , the subject of the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie "Catch Me If You Can" - one of the most notorious con men of the 20th century recently addressed as a featured speaker at a cutting-edge, computer-ruled event like the Wharton Technology Conference 2007. Well that is a significant role reversal from one who stole close to $3 million (mostly by writing bad checks), impersonated not only a pilot but also a pediatrician, and passed the Louisiana bar exam to today where he runs a highly successful security consulting firm out of Tulsa, Okla. -- works hard to keep up with today's computerized and Internet-based fraud. Well lets see if his 20th century con mind can catch the 21st century wiz kids since most of the fraud is going to happen over the Internet. Well there is no doubt that in USA, people tend to forget the past rather quickly. Take another instance of Michael Milken known for selling junkbonds, triggered the collapse of 1989, sentenced for 10 years! Today, he is termed as philanthropist, a financial innovator. Go figure....!!!

SOA Testing and MITA

I am finally giving in! After all my blog title is Just Express. I am currently trying to facilitate some MITA testing and performance discussions under the private sector technology group. Its tough to engage industry stalwarts in meaningful and detailed converstations since they are from organizations which compete on a day to day basis. But examples of IBM and Oracle working together are out there in the software world. I sincerely think that by sharing common points of pain and frustration, these converations, dialogs and collaboration will lead to more matured and evolved thinking and benefit the MMIS industry as a whole. Anwyay, I recently penned my thoughts on test aspect on their WIKI site. Here is the URL for it . http://www.mitahealth.org/wiki/index.php?title=Testing_Approach_to_SOA
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Trick or Treat: Political Buffonery of Day light Savings Time Shift

As we approach the new day light savings time deadline, a look back shows yet another political decision costing the United States not only dollars but plenty of chaos and anxiety. As political Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, predicted that children would rejoice at the prospect of an extra hour of daylight trick-or-treating on Halloween. Well the country has been tricked into spending millions of dollars on a Y2K like problem and unforeseen dollars in lost productivity. Well that is definitely a costly treat for the kids at Halloween. Yes there would be savings for the less fossil fuel that would be burned but I would be pleasantly surprised if this would outweigh the costs and the anxious moments that are being spent on the IT fixes. Yes it means good quarterly revenue numbers for IT services firms and consulting organizations but I just wish politicians had a better set of advisors in the future otherwise we would be tricked into yet another political sucide.

The Million Dollar Baby: Are you parenting one?

In this Wall Street Journal (WSJ) there was a report on how much money is being spend on raising kids from age 0-17. Well though the Government numbers were respectable at $16,000 per year, WSJ identified the numbers in the range of 800K to 1.6 million dollars for the period of 17 years. And to top it all, these numbers do not include college education. Initially I was just 'WOW' but then things started to settle in. The example of $800 stroller ( my wife and I discussed buying one, good we just discussed), a $1000 birthday party with a mermaid theme ( attended one that very weekend where the birthday for a 4 year old had a princess theme with a dressed up princess, customized 30 goodie bags and a clown too), $ 3000 annual family vacation trips, $4000 braces treatment and the numbers start to make sense. These kids are surely pampered and I am indeed jealous. The reason this article grabbed my attention was that I have been blessed with an angel girl recently and just reading these articles and numbers blew me away. But on the positive side I said, if I can not be a millionaire, at least I will have the satisfaction of raising one :).

Race for 2008 Presidency: Spanish Language, does anyone Care?

This is the start of my series of posts on the US Presidential Run for 2008 . For starters I stumbled on the web site on each of the current front runners ( yes, I did my own triage on that aspect). Hillary Clinton , Obama, John McCain and Rudolph W. Giuliani . Yes every one of these web sites must be backed and implemented by some savvy web designers and information architects but the one thing that seemed missing at the first glance was the lack of support for Spanish language. By ignoring the second most common language are these candidates doing the right thing? According to the 2000 United States Census, Spanish is spoken most frequently at home by about 28.1 million people aged 5 or over. Of these, 14.3 million reported that they also spoke English "very well". United States is home to more than 40 million Hispanics; the fifth largest Spanish-speaking community in the world, after Mexico, Colombia, Spain and Argentina. Yes, the experts would say that the Internet users of this Spanish community would not be challenged by English version of these sites but as the presidential candidate they need to make a more personal connection with their base and having a Spanish based language sites would be a good start in my humble opinion. What do you think?

PS. I am not a Spanish so it is not a personal agenda of mine.

Dump the Golden Rule: " Treat people the way you want to be treated"

Well these famous words may actually do more harm than good and hence the statement dump it!!! But why! The genesis of this statement is that two humans are alike and the human community is one homogeneous whole. But this is far from truth. Every individual is unique and has different thinking style, preferences and values. If that is the case, how can I assume what is right for me , correct in my style of thinking, precious in my value system is good for my peers and recognizable by my bosses and considerate for my subordinates ( don't have any :)). I just believe we need to recognize the cognitive differences and appreciate the heterogeneity of the people around us and treat them the way they would recognize, appreciate and acknowledge!!! What do you think ?

Winter Storm and Remote Working

Today we experienced the first winter storm in Maryland as a result of 8-10 hours of continuous nature blessing of sleet, ice and snow. I managed my way to the office but as expected, the attendance there was thin. I wondered if organizations capable of running operations remotely would have faced the same situation and have an adverse impact on productivity. But organizations that did not embrace openly the remote /working from home policy would have encountered significant productivity losses. An organization having 250+ employees would have lost almost one man year in one business day. Yes, lot of organizations allow remote working but are far from a position where they can avoid loosing significant productivity on such a day. The organizations do not have the processes and the code of conduct for working from home. Not allowing to work remotely/home means loss of employee hours which is a direct measurable cost. However these lost hours can result in significantly more loss in terms of schedule slippages on projects and revenue dollars in lost opportunities.

My organization is slowly getting into the mode of remote operations but it is more in the early stages than otherwise.It is a fundamental cultural shift of being able to collaborate and work as a team without face to face interaction. There is the no organization empathy and alignment and blah and blah. But at the same time we know many organizations are doing this effectively. It is a cultural shift and warrants code of conduct, orientations to enable the mind shift. So before we face the next winter storm ( I hope it is next year, don't want to spend time on road trying to go over snow hurdles, slush piles and the little but extremely dangerous black ice) , I hope my organization is able to embrace the remote model of operations. What do you think? Does your company have the desired code of conduct or it is more adhoc in nature?

Synopsis of a MMIS RFP

I have to admit that the brains behind this is Mike Morgan but I have attempted to tailor his article such that this reads as if a State (referred to as me) is enlisting requirements of an MMIS project in a RFP. The content of the MMIS RFP reads something like this ..

Please design and build me a MMIS system. I am not quite sure what I need, so let’s get started. My system should be aligned with all the MITA business processes even though I am not sure of what they are?. Just make sure the designs are such that the MITA processes can be easily adopted as they mature in their details. When you bring the blueprints to me, I’ll make the final decision about what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdowns for each configuration so I can arbitrarily pick one at a later time.

The requirements go on..

As you design, also keep in mind that I want to keep yearly maintenance costs as low as possible. This should mean the incorporation of automated workflow like single click magic buttons and autonomic computing using industry intelligence standards (If you choose not to use industry artificial intelligence standards and products, be prepared to explain you decision). Please take care that modern design practices and the latest techniques are used in development of the system, as I want it to be a showplace for the most up-to-date ideas and methods. To assure that you are building the correct system for our entire state, you will need to contact each of our sister agencies and their managers and team leads. My sister agency X has very strong feelings about how the system should be designed, since the agency uses the system once every year for some strange reasons. Make sure you weigh all these options carefully and make recommendations. However, I retain the right to overrule any recommendation you make. Please don’t bother me with small details right now. Your job is to develop the overall plans for the system and get the big picture.
Also, do not worry at this time about time and the resources to build the system itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the system to be up and running within 18 months.

And to top it all...
You must be thrilled to be working on such an interesting project! To be able to use the latest techniques and technologies and to be given such freedom in your designs is something that can’t happen very often and its great for your company's future market.

Does that sound familiar to your State MMIS RFP and requirements or a similar state IT project....

Note: Any references are purely coincidental and any resemblance purely unintentional.

Corporate Stress and the Certified Asshole Test!!!

I recently stumbled on an article(click here for the reference) which was on stressful living. Filled with sarcasm, the article divulges on the inclinations of a typical corporate manager (I read the article with my workplace and self context),which all lead to more stress, less productivity and less happiness (as if it counts). One of the most poignant of the five points was our tendency to "attempt to control everything". The reason I could align with this more than any of the other four was that I experience and live that everyday in my workplace. The key is that we really have little control over anything but there is that illusion of control. With the illusion of control comes the weight of acquired responsibility. All being a recipe of daily overdose of stress, pressure and anxiety. Yes, in the world of healthcare business all of these are special conditions of disorder and there are experts trying to solve them. Anyway, back to the stressful living article. We "Try to control other people; both what they do, and also what they think" Does that sound familar? The control phobia is so dominant and embedded in our minds and it is more since we perceive other people to be difficult, incompetent, and unreliable. The author writes that "the stress factor here lies in the fact that trying to control other people is much like herding cats; requires enormous effort, and you know deep down that it’s futile and ridiculous to even attempt. But if you manage to hold onto the illusion that you can actually gain and preserve absolute control over other people, this can be easily integrated into your everyday life as a reliable source of stress." The other four are also interesting and worth a read as well.
Close on the heels to further force the issue on the control phobia and its associated corporate management perils I need to mention the recent book title 'The No Asshole Rule' by Bob-Sutton. I took a small test (ARSE) and came out close to a certified 'asshole'. For example if you answer this question 'True' then you are pretty much certified : Do You feel surrounded by incompetent idiots – and you can’t help letting them know the truth every now and then? ....
Anyway, I hope we become more sane and respectful of our human surroundings. It's a slow transition for me and I do take two steps forward and one back but I guess I am getting there!!! Where do you Stand?