Urgency over efficiency - A cause of Stress

Human beings, irrespective of their profession have always been affected by trends from various echelons of society. Reading news articles, especially from Scientific sources that are on the lines of "We probably found the Higgs Boson" (ref: CERN press release today)  or "We have evidence of extraterrestrial microbial life" (ref: Mars Mission) has been quite frequent of late. Scientific method demands verification, the possibility of an antithesis and the dismissal of the antithesis based on facts or conjectures that can be repeated.

The new trend is not restricted to scientific articles, but also to Consumer Electronic products, the arena of Embedded Software Systems I work on. The pressure today is to deliver solutions to customers almost at 1/3rd the duration they were being delivered in the prior year.

This is a clear indicator of the aggressive motivation of growth. This "unhealthy" phenomenon is further exacerbated by economics seemingly inclining in favor of asymmetric or asymptotic growth patterns of material value generators in society.

In this world, where the everyday rush is not unlike a gold rush, it has a significantly "unhealthy" effect on both the perception of services provided and products delivered. A new acceptance of the 'incomplete' solution has began to dominate sectors including the automotive sector. Telecom companies have resorted to solutions like Android, where the com.phone.android (the core phone application is bound to restart, and is not as rigorously tested as prior.)

On the one hand we have a lot of momentum on increasing our awareness to the Environment and the Hazards we generate. Yet, the root cause of this lies in the want and the need to deliver ahead of the prior benchmark, oftentimes without sound reason or at times against reason.

Having been a hyper-workaholic, I can easily associate my habits with the work culture that has impinged our society. I have grown to understand that a calmer, consistent, measured and sound approach based on factual reasoning has a higher probability to succeed than a quick hack. This is something that has to be imbibed by entire companies as part of their culture and thereafter entire societies or groups of associated people.

An approach combined with commitment and the ability to reason and resolve the root cause of issues can benefit everyone in the long run and relieve several people in the chain of work from unnecessary stress. This also has to be done with the understanding that we, humans, are not machines, and have our biorhythms that are not always aligned with the day/night or a company's working hour routine. A solution that benefits both can easily be worked out considering that the result will always be a win-win.

I would personally be interested in hearing different thoughts on the same, especially on methods to curb the 'urgency' syndrome in the larger part of our responsibility to society and the environment itself.

Bitching, Gossip and Politicking

Whilst working in India, I notice that in several semi-urban Companies/Organizations, a large percentage of time is spent in gossip, politicking and bitching (blaming a third person who is not present) in a conversation.

This habit of gossip and politicking stems from the fact that we are a native populace who are over a millennium old at the very least - even the migrants among us. We have enjoyed large reserves of food, and long periods of time to kill - and during this time, as part of a social structuring exercise much time has been spent in gossip and politicking as means of reworking social structure. Early evidence of such politicking is evident in historic annals of the Nanda Dynasty (which destroyed the Gana Sanghs of the Gangetic Plain and gained strong control) and had many achievements but eventually fell to a more actionable successor - the Mauryas led by a strategic expert 'Kautilya'.

Today, Companies & Organizations where people get too comfortable because they are blindly trusted by their superiors or management end up having a lot of politicking and gossip. If a leader does not see this and leaves it unattended, providing time and opportunity for politicking to continue, this negative culture erodes the entire organization and effectually decreases or neutralizes productivity. Slowly, the Company (or Organization) marches towards certain extinction until a point where even a Turnaround Leader (like a Lee Iaccoca) can no longer make amends. This culture usually stems from people who earn strong trust, but continue to feel insecure despite that deep trust. The worst type of leader in an organization is the 'yes-man' who never tells facts and contradicts management/investor/stakeholder's requests. They always say 'yes' when it is the top-boss/investor asking for some result and then try, but eventually fail when it is physically impossible. Slowly the rot of politicking erodes the organization like the termites of Saruman (frm: LOTR) and leaves everyone's morale in a low, also spreading mass stress usually combined with indifference and depression.

If you are inside a company where your boss pretends that factual reality is wrong and relies on perspectives of some individual on whom she has invested all her trust, it is a sign that you ought to leave. This is the true manifestation of 'Maya' (as Indian Philosophy calls gnosticism.) There is little to be done after the decision-maker is swayed by the virtuosity created by her trustworthy lieutenant. The one thing you can do is to leave the organization without scruple, for the repairing the damage is no longer in your hand. Unless you can bring your boss back to reality and see beyond the veil created by the trustworthy lieutenant who is creating the virtual realm and simultaneously harming the organization, there is not much to do; except if you believe in revolt. Switch to an company or organization where people spend much less time blaming, in gossip, in politics and more time producing and attending to their customers.

If you are the one feeling insecure and creating the virtual world, stop and think. Eventually your hunger for control (which is the same as the hunger for power) and your assumptions (which were never based on fact) are about to bring the ship down. If you do not have true affection and concern for society and are feigning it, then you are about to see truth reflect on you - for it always triumphs, and "truth's triumph" doesn't mean that the resultant is sweet. The bitterness might leave an organization and its people in shambles. Provoking people and making them talk about a third person to feed your own egotist self is the best way to tear down morale and trust below you. Finally no one will respect you nor trust you - for this nasha (or madness) will be your own undoing of yourself - for you will find that true happiness will elude you and leave you in perpetual pain, (even if you were a sadomasochist.) 

You need help first, you need to understand that nature does not take kindly to those who eat into organizations into which they are most trusted by their bosses. Nature is strong and when it reflects on you - no human can save you, for you will be destroyed, not by people. The longer you continue, the stronger will be nature's backlash. The organization will turn unprofitable, revenue will be difficult, customers will be slim, employees will have no morale, no attachment - they will create smaller cycles of the same evil you do to others. 

Eventually all will fall, with no one to protect you, save Nature itself and the Omnipotent Creator. Save yourself and prevent it. Remember that this world changes almost instantly and only all the good you have done or have tried to do will be with you when you find dire straits - you can get back and undo the damage you have knowingly or unknowingly unleashed. Blame someone else when you have all the authority, time shall wear you down - for you shall continually find hell on earth and be accustomed to repeat your vices. Life is short to be wasted feeling hell.

When you look for a new job, check the employees about 'blame-games', 'finger-pointing', 'gossips', how they spend free time, actual profit/loss statements, achievements per unit time in the recent past and then invest your time in that company. 

Do not, in desperation join an environment that robs you of your sense of fulfillment and happiness because of a politicking marauder and a hyper-trusting top-boss. Real organizations will not work in binary/extremes. They will create balance and an environment for people to shine, not whine. Find this for it exists in the subcontinent, do not spend your career in a pained place where everyone is suffering and passing only the suffering on to employees and customers alike. Stay alert and try not to hurt anyone no matter what.

The 'Yes-man' will not exist in an organization where the Top-Boss listens and senses the environment with empathy and logic, thereby removing them and placing realistic achievers who achieve, yet never say 'yes' to every request. This is the best environment, where you will find mentors, not bitching/gossip/politicking - these environments exist for India is soaked in deep wisdom of its past. Finding them is also easy, it merely requires diligence.

Find them and escape those vices that can destroy you. Life is what we experience through time, and it is ill-news to waste it feeling pain. Life is to be relished, enjoyed every moment. Life is not a wave of joy and sorrow, it is ultimately what we feel and paradise is on earth, it is our response to the environment; and it is our choice to choose or create this environment where we find paradise and no pain. Mukthi and Nirvana is achieved on earth, for our great past has taught us much. Mere dressing-up and make-up will never have true results. Mere talking will never help for your identity is derived from what you do; "you are what you do."

Linux Unleashed (2011)

Over a decade ago, the landscape of open source was predominantly GNU/Linux with Mozilla and the Apache foundation. Teamed up with MySQL, the server scape was slowly assimilated. The Desktop was young with Slackware, Debian, Redhat, Mandrake making early in-roads. Few saw Linux as a solution for the desktop where usability translated to simplicity. Hackers (programmers), sysadmins adopted GNU/Linux in whatever form it was available. At the same time, IBM was demonstrating Linux on its mainframes and packing it onto a wristwatch. They had proven that it was practically scalable. The impact at that time was subtle, but a revolution had begun.

In the early days of GNU/Linux, there were frequent comparisons of Linux with Microsoft's Windows and Mac OS (many serving as flame-bait in mailing lists and forums.) Computing devices were not yet commodity and the OS/System Software space was presumed to be an oligopoly. The "OS" was seen as a product, an end in itself, rather than the means to an application (which is easier from today's perspective.) To be fair today, Linux does not have a single perspective (or personality) to project it as a 'de facto' desktop OS alternative. Ubuntu, Knoppix, Linux Mint, Arch, CentOS, Fedora, OpenSuSE and the list goes on.

I remember a discussion in 2001 with my then CEO (Codito), Harshad Pathak. We were a group of hackers trying to define data abstraction, data hiding and data encapsulation. He came up with lines of wisdom, "I don't care what Operating System my Phone is running as long as I can make calls and use it for texting. Embedded Linux, Windows CE - it really doesn't matter." As techies, to us, the OS was sacred, and that transformed the discussion into an argument. An Operating System must facilitate the user to accomplish something, which could be done only through an application or service or a mix of both.



Today, we are precisely in the scenario where the GNU/Linux ecosystem has facilitated end-user productivity through applications, platforms and cohesive technology. Google uses data centres powered by the GNU/Linux ecosystem. Android derives from a Linux kernel. Chrome-OS derives from a Linux kernel. Facebook runs scalable servers powered by GNU/Linux. Desktop options powered by GNU/Linux are innumerable as this infographic reveals. Alternate OS platforms including Sun (now Oracle)'s OpenSolaris, OpenStorage, BSD's contributions as FreeBSD (forked as Darwin became a part of Mac OS), OpenBSD and NetBSD offer a much larger palette to choose from.

Android users are clearly using a phone, empowered with applications and web services from google. The Internet has many businesses providing services in a SaaS model, a good number of them powered by the ongoing Open Source revolution. Business models have undergone radical changes. Semiconductor companies (Intel, AMD, ARM, TI, FreeScale - to name a few) have gone out of the way to ensure System Software (compiler, OS) level support for new Silicon solutions through the Open Source Community. As this has gradually happened, there is a perceived reduction in solution costs that have been passed on to the end user. The spectrum of smart-phones and tablets at CES 2011 was more than proof of how semiconductor majors worked on reducing time-to-market and system-software costs.

Businesses are increasingly adapting and learning to use community source (rather than roll their own code for everything,) wherever it gives them a significant advantage. The businesses having understood the potential, have also begun to reciprocate to the community. It's happening right now, almost oblivious to the glitz and glamour of a Consumer gadget show or a Technology forum.
Proprietary stand-alone platforms are quickly revising and re-inventing. To name a few, Microsoft Live, Microsoft Azure have been Microsoft's answer to the changing technology scape. Rumour mills suggest Apple Sabertooth could be Apple's answer to the change.

Ultimately, what began as the GNU revolution, and then the GNU/Linux revolution, to a full-fledged ecosystem expanding with options as new players joined has changed Information Technology irreversibly. 'The Cloud' is often compared with earlier ideas proposing 'Network Computers', later 'Network Computing.' Yet, the cloud solutions available rely on the evolved Open Source ecosystem. Community Source / Open Source has finally emerged as part of the change and catalyst to the change. The entire system has evolved without serving goals or targets of its own original projects by allowing itself and therefore impact, goal and user-base to change. The business model of the Open Internet Venture is here to stay. Corporate Entities and Governments are also embracing Open Source (WSJ).

and Promises kept ...

Well, this is more on today's high speed, Tech savvy, texty, screeny, tweety, yuppy crowd. I've noticed that keeping promises in a fast paced world (things as simple as, I'll return your book tomorrow, I'll give you some templates tomorrow ...) are easier said than done. The immediate explanation all my friends jump to is that our generation is careless, callous holding a cavalier attitude to life. Every individual faces stress related amnesia.

I used to blame myself for forgetting trivia (now that I have gone lengths to preserve all requests that I have answered on my stead on a notebook to help me remember.) But the link above throws some light on the fact that we are actually pushing our mental faculty over the cliff. This results sometimes in short term memory loss. Here's the catch: unless you remember things within your short term memory, they have nil probability of being archived into our long term memory.

It is true that the human mind is almost not duplicable, distinct and a wonder in its own way. Yet, all of us refuse to accept that the very power we lean on, is the very limitation that holds us. Funny as it might seem, our senses are the sole windows for our souls to the world outside; likewise they are the very ones who can fool us about the world outside. (Gnosticism derives extensive conclusions from this assertment.)

The solution I've slowly been working on is to fight the cause rather than the symptom. Noting things down in a notebook for better memory retention is symptomatically addressing the problem. In contrast, improving short term memory rententivity should help transfer memory streams to our long term archive. However, reducing immediate and unplanned work load by extensive planning and anticipation is a much better approach.

Symptomatically of course, I find that being transparent (and therefore sharing information with more people) can only improve our chances of not forgetting what we promise. Being an ardent admirer of Agatha Christie's works, I admire Hercule Poirot sitting in his armchair, wading through information (more of misinformation in his context) to beget the fruits of his mental labours.

A promise kept, is one of the most self satisfying exercises in the world as I know it. The one forgotten easily grows into a consciencous torment that eats us until we morally dissociate ourselves from it. (There are those of us who consider this a sin in its own demerit.)

My experience is to keep working hours shorter, relax longer, read more; plan longer than you work, and avoid confusing entertainment with work - their separation is a strong relaxative, the blurring a nightmare that you'd better avoid. A calmer, lucid mind has a better chance to achieve, keep promises and stay on the square within the circle of gentlemen.

Making things work!

At work, of late, things have taken a rather different turn for the better. The working hours are quite strict, with the only (and my most preferred) form of entertainment being Table Tennis at the gymnasium. I have found that just a single game preceded by a short warm-up can have your mind savvy to take on problems with much more ease. Adding more to it, if you do tend to move a lot while playing Table Tennis (which I do a lot), it also works as a very positively fulfilling exercise for both the body and the mind.

The resultant is the ability to quickly think of solutions to problems, create results when they are required without bleeding across the working hours. Our new working hours depend on the new location, availability of service staff and facilities. Ultimately you start learning to do more with less time and less stress to body and mind. Of course, there were times when I felt I was taken up to spending a lot more time at the gym rather than at my terminal. Finally one can always create a balance to enhance both work and play. Both of them become equally rewarding to the self.

This also leads me to believe that games are the best way for the human mind and body to exercise together in tandem helping one's health by both relaxing and pushing physical fitness. There's the fun too. Perhaps many corporate companies are missing out on an effective tool that can help employees enhance productivity. The other self-imposed exercise activities including cycling and walking or running the treadmill do not have the element of excitement that a game gives, and serve purely a physical fitness purpose. There are those who need that too, but I find far less people frequenting them.

As I've tried and planned out all my weekends and sometimes weeks to involve a greater amount of social interaction than I previously had, this week seems to be bringing in the results I've been looking for. While I do not specifically go on creating new year resolutions; I like bringing into myself change that suits me and helps me become better in every perspective. It's been a long time since we had a team outing with Dinner and a Movie at least, and we hope to be doing that this week just ahead of a hopeful outing (where it's presently raining cats and dogs.)

Holi and the Holy Week

It has been quite a long time since I've posted on my own Blog. Today being Easter, is probably a nice day to post. It is actually a mark of the beginning of resurrection. It is truly a wonderful day; on the basis of showing mankind that even after what might be perceived a fall or unfavorable conditions, there is triumph of the unabated soul through resurrection.

During this week, specifically this year a lot of festivals came up together on the day I remember as "Good Friday." At work there has been specific devotion to product quality improvement, new product planning, preparing our unit for stronger leadership and taking more roles on my part to see things through smoothly and strongly. This has taken a lot of positive effect, infused energy and enthusiasm to make our jobs as problem solvers more satisfactory.

We also played Holi on the day of Good Friday where I chose to be at office having taken leave on Maundy Thursday. I must say this is the first time during my 1 year 10 month stay in Bangalore that I chose to participate in Holi. Back in Pune, I used to be literally scared of the colors and the dyes, so much that I used to vanish before dawn only to be at work while the fun lasted. I understood that Holi (in its present cosmopolitan form against its true origin) is a sociable, fun-filled, friendly event. It might seem in converse to Good Friday which is spent in mourning for the suffering of Christ. I have no regrets on the choices made for the day.

At home, there has been the dawn of a calm after an unexpected turn of events over the last year which I had commented on my blog prior. There are those who have suddenly sought to contact me after a long while. Old friends have networked with me (including schoolmates, I had lost touch with.) There is also the rain that has showered this week, after (literally) sunny days where our usual afternoon walk (at office) seemed a bit more unpleasant than it usually was.

Some paid lighting visits over the month on trips to Bangalore and as a gesture of friendship I accommodated them at least long enough for them to refresh for their busy day in the city; arranged for transport to help them get back to the airport. There are those who chose to stay out of contact from me who have suddenly chosen to start communicating. Either way the effect has been more social contact. Across every week/weekend either I have visited (usually closer to my house) or someone has visited me (close to my house or at home.)

There have also been those who have solely communicated by phone (who believe the phone is an instrument that guarantees privacy over long distances; an urban myth I do not subscribe to). As I prefer to do any personal talking from home rather than while at office or on the move or outside; this has sometimes led me to sleep later than I've wanted to. I like e-mail as the high speed equivalent of written communication, which wastes less time and carries with it more clarity.

There have been those reading my blog frequent enough without commenting and expressing opinion. Either way it makes for readership of what I thought was a vain loss of expression. That is what makes this exercise of blogging fulfilling. Ultimately the scribes get to write History that lasts longer than the events. The blog if it survives on the Internet (for long enough), will do exactly the same thing that a "Minutes of a Meeting" do after the meeting. So perhaps there is readership and record.

On the whole, The Holy week was filled with peace and calm and as the entire period of Lent came to an end with a fulfilling joy in the mind; combined with mixed feelings at work (where we presently seek and await new Leadership), yet appreciate all the energetic things we've done till now.

We are also planning a farewell to someone at work who has chosen to spend time rather differently, indulge in self-exploration and understand the true fulfilling pursuits of self. We intend to club it with a team picnic and make it memorable to all of us as an outing we haven't had over 9 months. These details are being worked out and executed at a pace that is too fast to describe.

Training, Fun and Work!

This week was much less on work load. We had a nice training session by Dexter Valles. His way of showing how we could improve our managerial skills was interesting. We did a few psychometric exercises to understand ourselves. We had a few activities which, irrespective of the results, reflected our current style of doing things. Our scotoma in being more task-oriented than goal or vision oriented showed up. We used the opportunity to learn new ways to rid ourselves of this scotoma. The entire training session setup for a period of 2 days was fun filled and also gave us the opportunity to meet managerial teammates across D-Link.

We had initiated at work a more spirited fun-filled exercise of requesting everyone to decorate their cubes with a theme that was across an entire team. This too was well done. The Video team guys came up with a D-Link in 2020 theme, while we EmSys chaps came up with "Hardware/EmSys going Green" which was more about the company's own mantra. Ours was a more permanent setup that did not disturb our workplace and looked less like decor. We liked it. There were other interesting themes about which were checked out by our CEO Mr.Jangoo Dalal.

Friday, was a time for birthday celebrations and fun of all sorts. We organised an ethnic wear competition and followed it up with a collage game. There were special snacks served for the day (which is not done as usual at this office.) Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy it, and we made sure that the fence-sitters were also sufficiently entertained. The first steps of making work more fun was initiated with this.

via nova

With the shift to the new office facility complete on 11-Feb-2008, I am now using a new timing (0730hrs - 1630hrs) every day at office. This is coupled with 90 minutes of travel to and fro under ideal conditions insofar. The total distance is 21.5 km which is 43 km to and fro no matter what short-cuts you can try.The way to office is a little better in terms of road condition and traffic [the time being earlier in the day]. There are pick-ups and drops for two timing shifts 0730-1630 and 0800-1700 in use presently. These are mostly Chevrolet Taveras which are quite roomy and comfortable.

Doing this journey by myself (thanks to my Chauffer) has required me to be much more disciplined in my sleep and wake-up. I no longer have the luxury of error in the morning owing to the traffic that swarms the new via everyday. There is an elevated highway in construction on the new route. However that seems to be taking quite long and probably until 2009 or sometime into 2009 to near completion. Further the elevated highway is being created as a 2-laner which may result in traffic problems in the future when it is commissioned for use.

Facilities at the new office are nice. People still find the shift from 0930-1030 to 0730-0800 difficult to adjust. This is probably the first week of the human body's rebellion to change. I have been lucky to start office with breakfast and my favorite coffee.

The Release ...

One of the teams at my company is making a field trial product release. This had a lot of dependencies from my team which we had to close with a lot of "process" to avoid political conflict. For the first time insofar at D-Link, I have been able to breathe easy while The Release is on. This will soon be followed by a Product Launch shortly with the press and marketing events.

While it has been essentially a good show so far, there have been few show-stoppers. Things that people took for granted earlier came back. Murphy's law is active in full swing. The release has been postponed by two days (and is presently almost a tomorrow() function which never really happens today()). I see frantic activity to solve at the last minute whatever could have been addressed and sorted out earlier.

I know for a fact that in most academic centers (schools and higher educational institutions alike), there is mass behavior of handling examinations and practicals at the last minute. I tend to believe that this behavior is carried on to work and life as one comes out of the academy into the real unforgiving world. Perhaps one important thing that most schools and universities miss out is to teach students timeliness and ensure that last minute work is discouraged with the strongest possible measures.

People find it difficult to do more with the time they have everyday. Everyone who takes up multiple responsibilities out of interest find themselves unable to serve all. People hardly benchmark and find their capacity nor do they work on increasing their capacity to deliver more in less time. This could be simply an exercise of recording daily activities whilst at school or work. This way activities that take too long can be weeded out and that time can be put to better use. I have done this by having a latent diary record, a realtime record (of activities as and when they are complete). These tools helped me plan.

I feel that whoever is postponing tasks at the last minute has been too busy prior with other problems that some were ignored until they popped up late. The real solution to being cool, calm and level-headed during a Product Release is to avoid ever having been too busy to have ignored other responsibilities whilst tackling a Gordian knot.

That said, when one is in a situation it is hardly useful to be retrospective. One needs to get out of the bear-hug of the last-minute. This can only be done with strong leadership, assertive decision making, participative management and guidance to whomsoever seeks it. Then people will be able to get out of charybdis. Perhaps a lesson in Greek Mythology would also help!

A Week less ordinary

This week was more fun at work than I'd anticipated. We have finally laid the benchmarks and lines to take one of the products I've been involved with out to the market, engaged a few customers and are already working on revisions. To add to the thrill, there's one more product also in the field where I was involved in redoing an algorithm.

Beyond this, I have been trying to squeeze the best performance out of a CMOS sensor for improved realistic images. It looks like I might have hit some of the physical boundaries of CMOS sensor technology beyond which only smart post-processing could help. I am also set for a trip for my School's Silver Jubilee; set for 23, 24, 25 January. I am hoping to be present from 24 January to keep my presence at work maximal (this being one of my new year resolutions.)

Expressive!

Today, a good part of the day was spent in trying out some techniques that my mentor recommended for a technical problem. There were results, not dissimilar from prior ones that I had passed through. Either way, it was seen as a positive development.

Most of the day was spent in meetings. A friend who had provided training to colleagues had come to update me on his availability and schedule for the year. I admire his planning and self-driven nature. The usual weekly meeting (normally scheduled on tuesdays), today was mostly driven by me. There was some apathy towards my boss who chaired it, which I did divert by going pretty expressive on ways we could do better going forward.

The one thing I hate is retrospective thought and doubtful thought. The two most hated lines I have heard are "Why didn't you think of this solution which has solved a major issue prior?" and "Do we really require high-end equipment and tools to improve product quality, can't we just improvise with what we (don't) have?" These statements form the lingo of a colleague of mine whom I have been trying to convince with great effort to avoid retrospect and to employ intuition, lateral thinking and risk in solving tough problems. As he has been least receptive, it has been difficult to convince him in one shot, but with expressive moments including today increasing, I am hoping I shall get to him.

I did get a little overboard with my expressiveness towards the evening swallowing almost 1 hour of my colleagues' time in the evening. This basically was in an attempt to converge attitude, thought and method across our team. I do hope that despite whatever boredom I generated, it would have had some help to the ends I've tried to meet. Today has been one of the most expressive of my days where more time was spent on output than on input.

A Nice Day at the Office

The whole of Wednesday, reckoning the new year was quite nice at office. We had a nice session where my mentor did give me some useful ideas to improve things I was working on and review some of my skills. I really liked the time spent as it was most useful.

For the next part, I was most interested in an open-house where the management shared information on the last quarterly performance of the company both in numbers as well as inside. While many were asked to come up with their questions, I noticed that everyone was looking at the possibility of pointing out at issues that had not yet been taken up. The speaker had made sure that these issues will not be the point of (an endless) discussion in the most polite and acceptable fashion.

Everyone seemed intent to find fault with "decision making" or "policies" that had not been taken up. The trouble was no one (who was criticizing middle management as a blocker) was pro-actively fighting it out by getting things done by convincing the necessary people. As it was someone else's job function, they were hoping that it should have been done by those responsible and were unwilling to try it out themselves. I find that the environment does allow people to do things themselves at every level.

As each system is held back by some sort of inertia, the response time is a drastic factor in deciding whether a pro-active approach of changing things is really worth the while. It is unfortunate that people switch jobs hoping that another system with different inertial properties will help them. If one can't get something from the present outfit/establishment they are working/interacting with, they should at best sharpen their skills. These sharpened skillsets can help them change the system itself rather than require them to switch. This holds good unless there is something drastically wrong or factually impossible. Such cases are rare and occur when a system is at its end.

The grass is always greener on the other side. Many leave finding good pastures, but the one thing they might definitely find is a temporary change in compensation. For that switch; it would seem a reasonable thing. Better administration and management do not necessarily mean that they are superlative, they would still have their fallbacks. I find great opportunity in making something grow better, and the more latitude of growth it has, greater the offer.

I do agree that any system that disallows change is doomed to self-destruct. The environment constantly changes dictating everything that is part of it to react and change suitably. Nothing within the environment can reverse these tides of change. Changing the environment would require many systems or a large number of systems that are part of it to affect the environment in such a way (drawing similar analogy.)

On Cameras and Pictures

This day at work, my boss was down with fever and I was taking up the weekly status review in his stead. It took half the time which was well spent, attendance being thinner than usual. The rest of the day was spent in finding another (sigh!) anomaly with camera images on something we were working on. By the end of the day, we did find an answer to it, but we had created collateral restrictions working on it.

Another friend debunks from work to take a really long New year weekend vacation. That would leave me hunting down more bugs sitting by myself. I do like doing it, but sometimes it can grow to become quite a weight bearing down on oneself.

Coming back to the main thing, Camera's are odd devices - the modern digital video sensors. The CMOS Sensor Interface originally dismissed as a lower quality (and therefore low cost) alternative has gained popularity with much change in technology. Most sensor companies have decided to put a Application Specific Digital Signal Processor with their Sensors. This actually means that even if a CMOS Sensor is sensing video with less accuracy and sharpness than its cousin, the CCD, we could have "patches" or workarounds that "post-process" the captured image and show it to be of better quality in digital terms.

As these sensors are intended to be integrated in very small designs, they are generally low power consuming. That might seem like a feature to most people, however that means strict restrictions in communicating/programming a CMOS sensor. The major part of the problem that I've been tackling through the day has been on sequencing the program to the DSP paired with the CSI (CMOS Sensor Interface.)

Debugging it seems would occupy a major portion of the timeline of any product development. It is sometimes an interesting exercise if you would discount the human communication aspects at the time of facing a blocker and working through it. Mildly put whenever you encounter major problems in any product/service that on sale would fetch revenue, someone needs to be "accountable" for the "delay" (therefore loss of opportunity) in providing a consistent solution (even a workaround if it were reasonably secure and consistent.)

I do remember Alan Cox's speech on ratio of errors in hardware versus software on which I disagree entirely with his opinion that hardware is relatively much more bug free. I see that hardware is designed in a generic manner to send most of the complexity to "replaceable" and/or "upgradeable" software. This would mean that with higher complexity and offer of features over a generic platform, software would take the bane of being more buggy whenever engineered within strict time-frames with requirements changing along side (on the assumption that software can adapt and incorporate changes much easier than firmware/hardware.) Further, I see that a good number of hardware bugs (including the infamous pentium f00f bug) were worked around in "software."

So whenever a system as a total malfunctions, as most of its features rest in software, so do most of the errors (proportional to the features.) Unfortunately this relationship of software[features:errors] is not normally linear. I would assume that the mathematical non-linear relationship is statistically acceptable in any system that is operational with almost 0 probability of total failure and almost unity probability of being functionally useful for a predetermined set of tasks.

With reliability paradigms existing, like 5 nines or 7 nines, it is reasonable to assume that man-made system in an open environment has a 0 probability of failure (and therefore total perfection.) So engineering time spent in tilting the probability of failure towards 0 for any system grows in an asymptotic non-linear manner as you close in on the 0 but never reach it. That's a nice way of looking at "systems with embedded software" and their failure.

The unfortunate part is that I'm right now having to spend non-linear time in creating these shifts to close the probability towards 0. It does become exciting quite often as you crack the jigsaw puzzle a few pieces at a time.

Battling the Passe

My whole day was spent in trying to find the source of a many an issue, each of which, if eliminated would make the product I am working on look more polished. The more critical things having been addressed, these are what I term less critical, but necessary finishing touches.

Yet, when you are working on a product where the components are by and large passe and someone has already done it before, probably better; the only way out in software is sometimes fix the symptom of the problem before you find what really causes it. In most cases tracing aetiology of indeterministic and non-repeatable bugs happens by chance.

I believe that the chief architect of a product must anticipate and understand what is necessary rather than what is best. There must be an incentive for providing in short time the necessary ones before closing in on the best solution which would be an end-point. This requires a vision and imagination of a product long before one has even got to the drawing board. This is the one thing I see lacking in completeness.

Christmas season already having arrived, I would like to think of the pleasant things in life and rather cherish the time than crib about bad architects. One can spend hundreds of hours on a badly designed product and achieve nothing much, save wasting precious time. People justify why they "could not" have achieved better once the design imposes constraints that are hard to work around. Last Christmas a prototype of this product was made ready and had a problem no one anticipated, but the architect decided was good enough. The results were of course discontent remarks. The bridge between expectation and realisation wasn't built right. That would entirely be a PR exercise.

Despite the reasons, I am unhappy at being at the same level one year later. There are so many reasons one can attribute it to. Much could have been solved by stronger investment in testing equipment when there was known uncertainty with Silicon components and problems whose source was too difficult to identify with the limited debugging equipment. No one likes to take a risk that could pay off and get things solved. They'd rather waste time than money, as they have no idea that time in today's world is most of the times more precious than money.

If this product does fail in the market, it would be because of archaic architecture and management that is passe. The use of tools and debugging equipment that is not state of the art has added to the uncertainty. Expectation is a license that is free for all, but not by forcing people to slave longer.

A Debugging Day

Today, the early part of the day was spent in the unbiased understanding that out of five of us in our team three were attending a training session. That left me and another teammate in opposite cubicles sitting and feeling more lonely than anything else.

Through the day, I scanned through more CVs and Resumes, shortlisting a few after some careful thought. We also had a trip planned that had to be rescheduled to a prior date necessitating immediate action to book to/fro tickets for 4 (including myself.) My reporting head did a really dedicated job at getting this done.

I went through the next phase of debugging everything in a strange audio driver for one of the products I am working on. I found that "readprofile" gave very low granularity and actually only gave a slight hint on what we should be looking for. It did give some positive results, but we have something that always ends up in a cascade failure. I now need to work my brain on the actual cascade failure to really get the indeterminate problem sorted out.

Finally, the day ended with more than an hour discussing our moving to a new facility, improving some processes and the last item of the agenda scratched out as we ran out of time. Phew! I got back to debugging with another geek and we did build some ground after which we chatted and wasted at least half an hour before I got to exit from office.

Come home, and I had noodles for dinner as that would be the quickest thing to prepare at this time. That done, I didn't have much else to do than to type out into my blog. Ultimately only the debugging thing stays fresh in my mind though I'd actually list today as a very productive one.

The Carrot and the Stick

Before a "Grand Inauguration" of a new facility, at least my teammates were expecting their performance Bonus. Processing for the same and scoring was already done and the figures had already been presented on paper to the team. But like all efficient organizations and with the assistance of an absolutely insensitive clod of a reporting head (who ain't bothered coz he's got no financial deficit right now) this wasn't credited.

That meant a lot of people were unhappy. I had a bitter taste too after having detailed all the necessary information, nothing was working out.

I am probably very impatient in many ways. This of course helps me in more ways than it can harm me as I get things done on the double.

I am not very happy either at the end. I might end up not visiting the Grand Inauguration even if I could, just for saving a few bucks on transport (fuel) and spending some quality time playing around with the linux kernel.

There were other precipitating factors like the inability to recruit new people because the company's offer of salary is too disagreeable to anyone whom we select. Market correction of the salary is a long way down the line. I am sure more people will quit before they realize. The point is the management think they have the Carrot and the Stick. It looks to me like the Stick is with the people who actually create it. If you don't invest you get nothing out of people or bricks. The Truth being, today's world does call people "Human Resources" and are more interested in "Capital Assets" and "Human Resources" like other resources are a liability.

(Yeah these are the words of a disgruntled employee in part.) That doesn't change what's what at the end. You give everything you have when you want to get more than what you have; that's the personal loyalty sense of today. Otherwise it has a negative effect that you stop giving everything you can give, that makes you dull. You'd rather switch and do more rather than stay back unhappy and do less. That seems to be a valid argument to me.

The unfortunate part is, no matter where you go, you're still a brick. There are those who are Dogs in the manger (managers) who'd rather never give up for a horse.
There's just the watermark of what you get that gets adjusted. When you reach it, you get unhappy all over again and switch. So where do you stop this all? One way, is to start on your own with your dreams and put yourself and everything you have at risk to get much more than what anyone else can offer. The other way is to learn to change the place you're already in to think differently. The former being easier (although too risky), the latter being much more difficult (although it looks less risky.)

Fighting Murphy's Law

Today was, in retrospect, a fine day indeed. Quite a few things I'd planned at work had started to go wrong. I had to go and reverse a decision, thanks to a new input on a microprocessor I was working on. Then there was buggy software that almost went along with a product to the field.

The strange thing is, we managed to stop all of this just at the eleventh hour. While I would say this ain't good management, it is strange that (at least) some of these things showed up before we got products on the field. I was running around quite a bit all through morning understanding before everyone else did, what was at stake. Everyone thought I had a panic reaction and finally after addressing the situation, people were quite happy about the way I'd rushed through it.

Afternoon was much more relaxed. I was supposed to meet somebody or rather the other way around by evening. Unfortunately the person was attending TI's Developer Conference and I chose to leave a little earlier than my published 1830hrs.

There has also been speculation on the dates on which my Company is actually shifting location of operations. That's adding one more uncertain variable specifically a disproportional increase in commutation cost and time. The sooner it comes, the sooner I would be forced to consider addressing it as a risk that I'd rather not take. Perhaps, this got me a bit worried in the morning, but nothing actually got to me to snap my cool.

The one thing I could learn today was, "So long as you react quick enough you can prevent things from going wrong later." Although masked by urgency, addressing problems quickly can potentially prevent a catastrophe. The other rule was of course to take responsibility for what you've done earlier. That makes it easier no matter how everyone reacts.