Saturday, 30 April 2011

Diary 2: Working on Weekend

Today I woke up at 8:15 am to attend the conference call with Gil and Ankit regarding the issues and doubts of previous day. It started at around 8:45am and was an effective call, filled with good discussions and ideas from all sides. The call ended at around 10:20 am, and then I ate my breakfast. After that, it was pretty much work and work. We divided the sections on which we will work and proceeded with that. In between, I also practiced for my performance, often multi tasking between work, practice and online TV series (CSI:Miami). I was very happy with the work today since it was going into the right direction, where I was able to understand everything and getting the complete picture of the project. At around 1 pm, I got a call from Krittika (HR, 2S Consulting), who scheduled the interview on Wednesday morning at Powai office and said that she will mail me the final details. I told her about the change in my profile recently, and also objected on the fact that the position was a Business Analyst position, which is lower than my current position. She agreed and said that the position can be managed based on the interview in addition to the salary. So, I agreed and told her to proceed with it. At around 2:15 pm, I ate lunch, and then again started working on the code. I completed my part of the work till around 5:30 pm, and mailed it to Ankit. I practiced my song again for some time.I was so tired after all the work that I took a power nap till 6:15 pm. Then I watched the ongoing IPL match between Kochi and Delhi, which Delhi won due to some good hitting by Sehwag (finally a win for Delhi). I then went for Bath and got ready to go to the function, with my electric guitar and amplifier too, in case they don't have good speaker facilities. On the way to the place, we found out that the venue has changed, and hence there was a tense moment, but was soon resolved with few phone calls.Well, the first slot was alloted to me, and I was told that I can perform 4-5 songs. There was hardly any crowd but it didn't disappoint me since this performance was important for me in a different perspective. Anyways, the show started at around 8:30 pm, I performed four songs in all - Mitwa, Soniyo, In Dino, Teri Deewani.I couldn't perform the last two songs very well because my throat dried up, and I was finding it difficult to pull my voice up. After an overall average performance, I came back home. Also, my sister had come from tuition around that time, and she went along with my father back to the function. At home, I started watching the ongoing IPL match between KKR and Punjab. Punjab were able to reach only 119 in their 20 overs, which KKR chased down very easily, taking KKR to the top position on the points table based on net run rate. Mom, Dad and sister came back at around 10:30 from the function, and then we had dinner at around 11:15 pm. Meanwhile, I loaded another episode of CSI:Miami, and checked my mail for any updates from Ankit or Gil. Also, I checked the news that south east coast of US has been hit by around 200 tornadoes over the last few weeks, causing great destruction all around. After having my dinner, I mailed a few other documents to Ankit, and then at around 12:00 am, took a short conference call to discuss the issues and problems. After that, I started writing this post. Now, I plan to watch that loaded episode of CSI:Miami, and then sleep at around 2:30 am. 

Friday, 29 April 2011

Diary 1: Busy Day

Today I woke up at 8:00 am, got ready for office by 8:30 am and then left for office by 8:40 am, after having breakfast and mom's well wishes. Till Sion, the traffic was manageable, with few surprising swift movements between signals. Once, my father got down at his office, the traffic was terrible, there was an accident in which a car got almost crushed between a truck and a bus, and this created a bottleneck. Anyways, it took 40 minutes to move from Sion to Bandra East station. I validated the coupons, and went to the 1st platform to catch a slow train to Andheri. The crowd was manageable in the train, and I found a comfortable spot to stand. After sometime I got a call from Ankit, and he said that Gil is online, and he has a new project for us finally. He added that Gil wanted us to give an introduction of the project and so wanted me to be at office. I told him about the traffic, and that it would take 30 mins more to reach the office. So, Ankit decided that he will take the call with Gil, and debrief me later. I reached Andheri station, and then took an Auto to office. Only Ankit was there, as Sushma was on a week long holiday. He then told me that we have a project which needs to be done by Tuesday, and also that we have to work on the weekend. I was fine with it, as I was waiting for some real project work for long. Gil sent us some 4-5 mails to read and attached the project files and the requirement documents with the mails. He told us in one of the mails that he will take a introduction call at 1:30 am, so we both started going through each of the documents and the project file. The whole project was on Informatica B2B Data transformation, the same tool on which we were trained a few weeks ago. I didn't take much time to understand what had already been done, so we had had our lunch and were waiting for Gil's call, but he never came again. Being enthusiastic about the project, I continued drilling down the whole project and decided to start with it and understand the details also. Ankit also decided the same. We worked for quite a while, figured out the additions for some part of the code, some mistakes in the input files, and made a note of the same. I got a call from my mom in between regarding the information on swimming classes and also regarding my performance for a rotary club tomorrow. After going through the code many times, discussing the aim of the project and noting down things, I mailed my observations to Ankit, who would append his observations and send them across to Gil later. I left office at 5:50 pm, and reached Bandra station at around 6:45 pm. I called the driver, who picked me up from there before joining in with my father outside his office at Sion. Today, one of my father's colleague also joined us as his bus didn't arrive on time. As I was travelling in the car, my father told me that Mumbai Indians made only 94 in their 20 overs. Obviously, I was in shock, but for two reasons, first that MI played terribly, and second that I completely forgot about IPL, and in a way felt happy about it. I realized that today was hectic, and so will be the coming days given the crazy deadline on the new project. Meanwhile, the discussion turned to the new airport at Navi Mumbai, and found out the exact location on Google map using my phone's GPRS. It would be near Panvel-Kopra, spanning an area of 9.5 sq.km. In the first operational year (2012), it would cater to 10 million commuters, and is planned to handle 50-55 million commuters when fully complete. There would be two runways running parallel and independent to each other. The first phase of the project would cost 4000 Cr rupees, and the whole project would cost around 9000 Cr rupees. Anyways, we reached Kharghar around 8:30 pm. Today, my sister had went to someone else's house for her tuition, and she came back at around 9 pm. Meanwhile, I had some Tea, came online and spoke to Gil regarding the project. He scheduled a call at 8:30 am next day, and told me that tomorrow is going to be a long day. I informed him that I would be attending a function from 7 pm to 10 pm, and he was fine with it. I also messaged Ankit that I would be working from home as there is no point wasting 4 hours in transit. All this time I was also keeping an eye on the IPL match that was going on between Pune and Bangalore. Pune didn't bowl well, and hence allowed RCB to get to 181 in their 20 overs. Virat Kohli, who score a quick 67, captured the Orange Cap from Sachin today. I ate my dinner at around 10:15 pm, and then watched Pune's batting, which was not up to the mark and thus resulted in Pune's loss by 26 runs. After that, my mom, dad and sister went to sleep. I plugged in my electric guitar and started practicing the song "Sohniyo-Raaz 2" as I was going to perform tomorrow. Meanwhile, I loaded the latest episode of "Big bang theory" and "Bones" on cucirca.com. After practicing few times, I watched Big bang theory's season 4 - 21 episode. Finally, I started writing this post, and now I plan to watch Bones' season 6 - 20 episode before going to sleep at around 3 am.

Thursday, 28 April 2011

DLF IPL 2011: Match 33 (DD v/s KKR)

Frankly speaking, this match was not Kolkata v/s Delhi. It was more of Delhi A v/s Delhi B. Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, both originally from Delhi, were playing against each other this time. SRK was also present there, who again is born and brought up in Delhi, now lives in Mumbai and is the owner of the IPL team from Kolkata- interesting. Well, another feature to look out in this match was Irfan Pathan v/s Yusuf Pathan. Unfortunately, they didn't face each other's bowling or batting, but Yusuf Pathan was caught by Irfan Pathan at long on. 
The match started off slowly, with Irfan Pathan showing some amazing skills with in-swingers. He ended up being the most economical bowler of the match with a crucial wicket of Jacques Kallis ( 4 overs 16 runs 1 wicket ). KKR's batting was pretty much ordinary and not living up to the strength on paper. Manoj Tiwary was the only one who made an impact with 61 not out, leading KKR to 148 in their 20 overs. I really liked Irfan Pathan today, he surely reminded me of the time when he took that hat trick against Pakistan in a Test Match. He was able to swing almost every delivery. Morne morkel had to bear to burnt on the other side with 42 runs in his 4 overs. Everyone was skeptical with the score, but nonetheless it was competitive enough.
Delhi's batting started off well, but they lost Warner early. Sehwag was looking in good touch, before hitting an awkward short ball to fine leg for an easy catch. The middle order was never very stable, and crumbled very quickly, reducing Delhi to 85/6. Venugopal Rao did what he does best - reviving the innings. His fours and sixes almost led Delhi home, but the wickets kept falling at the other end. After Venu got run out by some fantastic athleticism shown by Brett Lee of his own bowling, there was no ray of hope left. Kolkata won the match by 17 runs, which brought them to the second spot with 8 points, again behind the mighty Mumbai Indians. 

Scribbling 4: Music, where art thou ?

There was a time when I used to challenge myself to be a better singer, a better guitarist and a better composer, but considering the recent events of my life, I am not totally feeling very confident about anything. Well, it is always about comparisons and progressions for me. I have been feeling for a quite a while now that I am not at the place where I ought to be. This has both positive and negative angles to it. Sometimes I feel that I deserve much more success in life than I have now, a better job, where I am making an impact everyday, moving ahead of others, getting my name in newspapers and magazines, a unique domain of my own. At other times, I feel that I am the biggest loser possible and I don't deserve even what I have. This is a crazy situation and always keeps me low in life, and hurts my confidence a lot. Even though I have some achievements and developed a good reputation for my past, I don't feel special, I don't feel that my work is at all affecting anything in this world. 
During my college days, I just shut myself up from the outside world. I wasted tons and tons of hours watching TV series and movies. I realize now, how exciting the field of electrical and electronics is. I guess, I just didn't like the culture at my college. I just couldn't gel with the people there. I always wanted to be at the top, but when I couldn't I just gave up and assumed that I am the worst student ever. I forgot how it felt to top the class and what it took to top it. The only positive thing that happened in college was Music. I learnt the guitar on my own, I performed songs on stage, I composed songs, recorded them too, but I was always stubborn about getting trained in Music. I just assumed that I cannot get trained. Well, during the whole college period I was one stubborn individual - I didn't attend classes because I didn't like the people in my class, but the fact is - the only person who lost in this process was me. Although, the whole college experience was an eye opener, it is still a hindrance for me until I get into higher studies (MBA preferably). I have realized how important it is to extract the best of an opportunity. That's why once I left college and joined a job, I told myself that I won't let myself go into that area again. It was tough to change course, I succeeded for quite a while but then there were few speed breakers on the way.
Well, right now the only thing on my mind is getting an MBA, because that would not only put me into a better position knowledge wise but would also provide me an opportunity to redeem myself by not committing the same mistakes again. Recent set-backs have put me on a back foot but I will keep trying one way or the other.
Music in the title of the post is not specifically related to Music, but it is the smooth flow of thoughts and ideas in my mind. It is that confidence and lack of fear which paved the way of success earlier. I must learn to forgive myself first, and move on to achieve new heights. I have my own example in front of me. I just have to revisit my strengths- patience, perseverance and dedication. The only competition for me is ME. No one can stop me from being what I want other than ME. It is the single greatest fact of life.

Crime Scene Investigation

I just started with CSI:Miami season 1, and I am quite impressed by it already. The methods, the strong observations, knowledge applications, value of experience and many other parameters come into the picture when a group of individuals come together and analyze a crime scene. It is not only CSI:Miami, every other crime related TV series (Bones, 24, Castle, etc) has focused on these aspects. I did some internet search on whether the life of agents in this genre of work is actually so intriguing and nerve crunching. I found one article by a former associate director of FBI, who mentioned that what we see on movies and TV series' is just a part of the whole picture. He added that at a single moment of time, there are agents working as under cover, solving federal criminal cases, building strategies to bring down drug mafias, burning it out to train other subordinate agents, breaking some cryptic code of terrorist group, etc. Script writers often approach bureaus and spend time with the agents, listen to their experiences and attend specific trainings to understand the picture- part of which is visible on our TV screens. I wonder sometimes what the writers of Indian shows such as CID do as research work.
Personally, I am an analysis freak. I like over-analyzing. It not only brings forth some hidden or unseen relations between things but also keeps my brain's grey matter up to speed. Lot of practical knowledge goes in such situations, and practical knowledge comes from practice and experience. TV series' follow this very tightly. They would certainly have someone in the team who has a ton of experience dealing with crimes of many sorts. He/She stands apart from the team in difficult situations and is hence the factor which manipulates the TRP of the show (unless the female agents are too hot). 
Next, I would like to jolt down some methods, tools or practices followed in solving a crime in general. I will try to categorize them but being an amateur don't expect much from me.

MURDER/HOMICIDE/SUICIDE:
Things to look for (not in any particular order):
- Motive : Serial killer, cold-blooded, mafia, revenge, infidelity etc
- Cause/Time of death : bullet , drowning, poisoning, natural etc
- Weapon (in case of murder) : Build, Available sources, Registration Number, Home made knife etc
- Wound : Strangling on neck/hands, Bullet puncture, Knife stab, Trajectory inside the body, Close range or long range, Injection marks, Struggle marks etc
- Vicinity : Isolated, public place, home, party etc
- Victim background : No police history, Gang member, Immigrant, Role in the family etc
- Blood spatter : Can tell us how the scene actually happened, height of the killer etc

KIDNAPPING:
Things to look for (not in any particular order):
- Victim profile : Rich, middle-class, businessman, etc
- Motive : Ransom money, assault, threat, gathering information by torture etc
- Time frame : Last seen when, how much time has been given etc
- Location : Public place, daily routine path (school, work) etc
- Suspect profile : Kidnappers know the routine, Close-relative in need of money, etc
- Similarities with previous cases : Following some pattern or not

This is not an extensive list, but we can easily form an image of a crime scene from the above listed elements. Imagine that the police finds a body floating on an isolated lake, what are the next steps? We retrieve the body and try to identify him/her. Then we would look for cause of death - whether it was drowning or someone killed the victim and threw the body in the lake (this can be determined by analyzing the contents of the victim's lungs - If there is lot of water in the lungs, that means the victim was breathing in water in the last moments and hence drowned to death). After identifying and figuring out the cause, we go for wounds on victim's body (if any) and victim's background to figure out the motive. If it was a suicide, then we may find financial instability, suicide note or social awkwardness coming up in the background check. If not, then we look for possible suspects and motive related to each suspect. Very often we see that someone close is somehow involved unless it is random kill for loot or money. Well, now it is up to the script writer to let the flow of story go either way but in real life, we may need to improvise often and pave a different path to solve the crime. 

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

DLF IPL 2011: Match 32 (DC v/s KTK)

Now, there are few moments which are bound to be captured. Especially, when you see the best bowler in both ODIs and Tests being hit to boundaries and on the contrary, the bowler with the lowest skill set possible - Ishant Sharma, has picked up 5 wickets in just three overs. I never thought of writing about this match after I saw the first innings. Deccan Chargers, as usual, were not able to deliver anything special and ended up with a very average score of 129 in their 20 overs. I was pretty much sleepy throughout the innings, with usual stuff going around. 
I was just bored with CSI:Miami episodes, when I went to the other room to sneak a peek on the score-card. Within those few micro-nano seconds, I believed the score to be something like 25/0, 15/0 or at worst 20/2 etc. But, I couldn't believe my eyes and was about to pinch myself when I saw bottom left corner of the TV screen. It was 6/5. Now, when you know Dale Steyn is there in the bowling attack with likes of Ishant Sharma, Manpreet Gony etc, I would expect it was him who ruptured the Kochi balloon. I was just out of one shock, and I suffered another blow when I came to know it was our very own Ishant Sharma. Yes, the same bowler who was hit for the maximum number of fours in the previous season. The same bowler who was the perpetrator behind KKR's most of the loses. His figures were 5 wickets for 6 runs in 3 overs- Incredible indeed. 
There is nothing more to speak of after 6/5, but I am amazed by Ravindra Jadeja's effort under those conditions to prevent an early collapse of the whole batting. Not only this match, he has transformed himself very nicely in this new season. After seeing his own team mates lifting the precious cup few weeks earlier, he has realized the importance of his form in IPL. Even, few of the notable commentators were praising his shots and confidence oozing out of each shot. He certainly has developed some muscles under the skin. Kochi were bowled out for 74, a good recovery from 6/5 and 11/6. This loss would hurt Kochi both point-wise and net run rate wise, especially when so many teams are tied at the same points. This season may soon, turn out to be a race of run rates. We just need to wait and watch, where the tide turns in the coming matches.

DLF IPL 2011: Match 31 (CSK v/s PWI)

Yah, I can understand, same teams again, so early, but this is not the first time it happened. The same thing happened with Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders. Both the matches were won by KKR. Anyways, returning to the match, it was totally one sided. Pune lost 4 quick wickets for the third time this season, but today Yuvraj was looking way more positive than the last encounter. He hit some nice shots, and in general, timed the ball nicely. Nobody other than Yuvraj, created any impact. Chennai bowled nicely and restricted Pune to 141/6 in their 20 overs.
Second innings started off in a balanced way with Chennai losing Mike Hussey early. But, Murali and Badrinath held the innings nicely, and maintained a steady flow of runs from both ends. Pune bowlers and fielders never seemed to be eager enough to save the runs, and this helped Chennai to raise their run rate at par with the required run rate. In the middle overs, there was a genuine appeal for caught behind against Badrinath, and I personally felt that there was a definite nick but the umpire was adamant despite synchronous appeal from the bowler and the wicket keeper. The commentators didn't delay in showing the fair play award table, where Chennai was second from the top. Towards the end, some good hits by Raina secured the game for Chennai and they were home comfortably. Chennai won by 8 wickets, bringing them to the second spot on the points table just behind Mumbai Indians.
Overall, the game was boring throughout, and didn't cause any adrenaline rushes or heart-beat stops.

Scribbling 3: Work from Home - Boon or Bane ?

Now, if I show the title of this post to any one of my friends from my previous company, he/she would not hesitate to give me a nice kick on my butt. Well, I will not deny, I am a big fan of "Work from Home". Even in my present job, I have worked from home more days than from office, primarily because the office is too far, it accounts for 4 hours in daily transit, and which is a complete waste of time and energy. Also, being a start up there are only 3 people in India right now, one of whom is the office manager and not a part of my team as such.
Right now, the job is in the training mode, getting acquainted with the tools and softwares. Hence, the place of work is not something that matters much. 
But when we speak in general about work from home, is it really a good thing or it is a curse in disguise? Let's look at some of the pros and cons of "Work from Home". 

PROS:
1. No time wasted in getting ready for office, travelling etc
2. No need of carrying tiffin, eat hot home made food.
3. No rush at the end of the day, to catch the bus before time, or exiting before the traffic goes nuts
4. You can sing and work- put on some loud music and work while in full pumped up mood.
5. No tension regarding being in the same desk all the time, one can always take a breather, go to the balcony for some fresh air, watch some TV or even a movie if there is no such work apparently.
6. If you are alone at home, then you can work more than your counterparts at office as no one is going to bug you with small office talk.
7. If you feel very tired, you can always take a power nap in between for half an hour, which will completely recharge you for the tasks ahead without any guilt of being caught napping at your desk.
8. One can manage the time and prepare for competitive exams such as GMAT, CAT etc

CONS:
1. One obvious disadvantage is - out of sight, out of mind. If you are always away, people may forget you, and this may hurt in the year end reviews
2. The manager will not be able to see your work properly- if you are working very hard and doing a lot of tasks, then the manager will not be able to appreciate it on your face
3. Lack of general discipline in life, as there would be no restriction on dress code, or office conduct
4. No team work feeling
5. One can miss some random unplanned team lunches

This is what, comes up in my mind right now, the readers can feel free to take any stand and provide more points under any category. On a personal note, I belong to the first group, unless there are lots of hot girls in the office.

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

DLF IPL 2011: Match 30 (DD v/s RCB)

Being a cricket fan, I cannot neglect IPL altogether. Well, it is more like a break from my continuous and monotonous internet sessions. Today, like yesterday, there is only one match. Delhi Daredevils meet Royal Challengers Bangalore today at Delhi. After the reshuffling, I am still getting used to the new team groupings. Earlier, when I heard RCB, Rahul Dravid used to sub-consciously come into my mind, but now I have to think of Chris Gayle instead, who made an amazing comeback in the last match against his previous club (KKR) after not being bought at the IPL Auction. Well, I am still biased towards Mumbai Indians, which is in fact the team which has the highest auto-correlation co-efficient among all the other teams.


Well, coming back to the match, I have just one phrase to describe it - A simple pendulum with damping oscillations. The match swung between two teams many times. Starting with the Delhi innings, it was going good even after Warner fell, but some good fielding and bowling put the brakes on the run and Delhi just managed to touch the 160 run mark. Pathan hit a few sixes at the death but not without wasting too many deliveries. The last match played on this pitch produced a very high scoring match - DD scored 234 and Kings XI also managed to score 200 odds in their chase. Today, the pitch had lesser amount of grass, and hence the ball didn't skid as it did in the previous match. At the half way stage, the match looked evenly balanced, but with the knowledge that Gayle was going to open at the other side of the half, no one was willing to put his/her money on Delhi yet.


Second half, RCB were off to a fantastic start despite looking a wicket early. Kohli was timing the ball superbly, and was later joined in by Gayle, after his dormant start. RCB were cruising along nicely at the 8-9 over mark, when Gayle fell down to a nice bouncer by Hopes. Just a few deliveries later, Ab de villiers was run out by an unbelievable direct hit from the deep by Warner. Kohli was played on after that, and suddenly the RCB camp was running for water. But, after a lean phase of 14-15 runs in 5 overs, Saurabh Tiwary and Vettori played some nice shots to bring down the run rate close to 6. But the tension was far from over, when two wickets fell very quickly putting the pressure back to RCB. Well, finally with some bad bowling and uninspiring field placements, DD gave away the match to RCB, who easily managed to bring the boys home.


A good match, and also an important win for RCB, who are now 2nd in the points table with 8 points just behind the Mumbai Indians. Well, personally I didn't care who won, but I wanted the Indian players to perform well. After all, it is INDIAN Premier League.

Scribbling 2:Confessions of an Internet Addict

Yes, I am an internet addict. I spend more than 15 hours on net daily. Well, my job forces me for 9 hours or so but the rest is all me. I spend most of the time watching online TV series one after the other. I recently finished with Flash forward. It was an awesome series, but the ABC channel didn't renew it for the second season. It was hardly one day after I finished with two seasons of V ( an alien invasion based TV series ), which was fine but with an ending so abrupt and odd that it left me thirsty for more suspense thriller type series', I started with CSI:Miami today, although I wanted to start off with the original CSI, but couldn't find the online episodes for it, well at least for my region.

It is not that I didn't try anything else. I thought to myself - what else can I do? Nothing stood apart by the Cost-Benefit analysis, so I am stuck with the TV series option. The effect of internet has been such that I have been wanting to learn cryptography, martial arts, spying, swimming, and what not, all at the same time. Seeing the amazing lives of the FBI, CIA, NSA agents, I am just eager to feel the same. I even searched for Internet Addiction on Google and Wikipedia, and found out that the only remedies that exist are Self-Control and Psychiatric help. Being an inherent lazy person, I don't find any reason to move from my seat when clearly internet is able to provide me with almost every human emotion possible. 

I noted down few possible ways of curbing my internet use:

1. Internet timer - Keeping a clock right beside me to track the time of internet usage
2. Load the necessary pages all in one go and them switch off the router, disconnect the cable and sit somewhere else - far away from the source of the internet
3. Involve in learning something that doesn't require sitting in front of a computer (ex: guitar, keyboard, singing, martial arts, yoga, photography)
4. Go out very often to smell fresh breeze of air and feel that you are an alive human being

Though right now, I am not taking any drastic steps, but I believe this blog will help me more in curbing or at least directing my internet habits to productive directions.

Television Series' I have watched so far

Well, I have been actively watching and keeping up with American and British TV series since my college days. There were times when I watched them continuously for hours and hours. The result is a long list of shows and hence to mark the memory and to keep a tab on the shows, I am sharing a list of them (not in any particular order).

F.R.I.E.N.D.S
How I met your mother
The Big bang theory
House M.D.
Bones
Scrubs
Gossip Girl
Hustle
V
Flash forward
Chuck
24
Entourage
Dexter
Heroes
Kyle XY
Lost
Prison Break
Two and a Half Men
True Blood
Castle
30 Rock
Avatar: the last airbender
Californication
Seinfeld
Numb3rs

Informatica B2B Data Transformation: First Look


Although I am pretty much new to this technology, but still I would like to share what I know about it, mainly because there is very less help material available on the net. I recently switched jobs, and my new job is in a start up with offices at London, New York and Mumbai. The first thing that I got trained in, and part of which is going on is on the Informatica B2B technology (B2B Data transformation and B2B Data Exchange). As per my knowledge, Informatica bought a company/product named Complex Data Exchange (CDE) seven or eight years ago and then integrated it to the main tool as B2B technology. This technology is very new in the market, I have hardly come across any developers and users yet, but it is on the rise, and slowly many businesses are starting to understand the importance of it. 
Informatica Power Centre, as we know, is useful when the data is in the form of tables, or more generally, structured data. Informatica B2B Data transformation is a tool which deals with unstructured data. When I say unstructured, it doesn't necessary mean that there is no logic at all in the source file. The thing is, the structure and logic present in the source file cannot be handled by Data management tools such as Informatica or DataStage (not sure about DataStage though). This feature helps the business for better data integration across departments and regions. The formats which are generally handled by B2B are xml, doc, xls, HL7, HIPAA, SWIFT, etc. The back-end of this tool is coded in JAVA, and thus can be altered with add on libraries (thought till now I have not felt the need of it).
This is how a normal working screen looks like. On the right side, we can see the source file on which the operations take place (format here is xml). On the left, we have the Data transformation Explorer, which gives us the information about the projects and its components (source file, script (actual code), XSD (xml schema definition), Results (output) and also additional files if required). Below, we see the various options such as Help View, Events view, Schema view etc. We will go in deeper on each of the features later, but the point to be noted here is the Events view tab, which contains the execution path of the whole project or part of it. Basically, it captures everything the back-end engine is performing as it runs through each line of the code and puts it in an events file, which has the format – '.cme'. The middle section is the one where we write the code (the script file has the format - .tgp). There are two modes of coding, one is pure java, and the other is Intelli-mode, which is being shown here. We can switch between these modes by just right-clicking on the code section and choosing the other mode.
Presently, I cannot help with the installation part because I got the software already installed by my employer. But, with time, a situation may arrive where I may need to know.
Before we start coding with B2B DT, we need some basic knowledge about XML schemas and Regex expression. These are pretty simple, and you can easily find them on net. Well, this was just an introduction to the world of B2B. I will post soon about whatever I know. Hopefully, it helps both the readers and me.

For now, just remember the top level things such as - why B2B is used, how the screen looks, what data formats it handles etc.

Scribbling 1: Life at present

This is the first post in the series of random thoughts and synapses emerging in my mind. Well, to start off, sometimes I give undue important to other people - their achievements, their failures, their status, etc. If I waste so much time on analyzing their lives, what would happen to my life ? I become impatient, and restless, trying to achieve too much in too less time. My academic record at school has left an ever lasting impression on everyone. Being a topper there, everyone feels or I think they feel that I am not where I am supposed to be. I should have been in some big shot job or doing some complex research work. This puts a lot of pressure on me. I have alienated almost all my friends from past just because I plan to contact them again with that same confidence which I had that time. They ask me often - where are you ? why are you not in touch anymore ? But, how can I explain them my situation ? Most of my friends are in an awesome position, some abroad, some at great management schools, some at MITs and sorts. Unfortunately, I have nothing to share with those old lost friends to make them feel proud of me. I am just waiting for such a moment in my life. There were few close encounters but they were snatched away from me.

In my previous job, people used to tell me to leave this low paying job and go towards Finance. Well, this caused a lot of resistance towards finance and finance-related jobs, so much that I developed a prejudice. Later on, when I started reading a bit about stock market, GDP, Inflation, Budget, Macro/Micro Economics etc. , I found that it is not a bad field at all. It is in fact, a very complex and dynamic field filled with challenges and lot of hard work. Unfortunately, the big financial giants use this to trick their customers and make huge profits. Also, after learning the fact that these giants are practically behind every possible war and crime in this world, it is tough to develop a soft corner for them. But speaking of the branch, if I ever get a chance to pursue this field, I would prefer research than practice. I don't want to get my hands dirty in the series of crimes. 

I have no idea how the things would turn out, but I wish I could regain that confidence level again. The recent events of getting rejected from IIM B, L and ISB didn't help the cause but I will not stop trying. Fortunately, my new job seems to be good, hefty raise from my previous package, and also a rise in designation. I will soon post some work related posts also, where I will discuss the technologies I have been working on very recently. These are very new in the market and hence add a niche touch to my skill set. Information about these tools is very less, even on Google, practically nothing on the development side, so those posts may be very helpful for those who are planning to learn it on their own.

Monday, 25 April 2011

DLF IPL 2011: Match 29 ( CSK v/s PWI )

Well, to start off, after India's world cup win on 2nd April 2011, I hardly care about what is going on in IPL. Earlier seasons were far more exciting given that nothing big as "World Cup" win had occurred before any of them. Also, this year's IPL has recorded the lowest TV ratings among all seasons as per news article - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/media/entertainment/media/ipl-4-opens-to-lowest-tv-viewership-ratings/articleshow/8076188.cms . 

But barring all this, I have been keenly watching one person - Sachin Tendulkar. So much is there to learn from him - his humility, his calmness, his enthusiasm. I wonder how he can maintain that pace at this age when I am practically bored and lazy in my early twenties. He is the only reason, I am supporting Mumbai Indians ( apart from the fact that I own a jersey of MI :) )

Getting back to the present match, CSK started off well with Murali and Mike Hussey getting a few good hits here and there, but soon CSK succumbed to some superb bowling by Pune Warriors. Dhoni gave some support to Hussey. Raina and Morkel didn't trouble the scorers much. Hussey nearly stayed there till the end with a well timed 60 odd score.Well, in the end, CSK managed to score 142/6 in 20 overs. Not a very competitive score, given the boundaries are smaller in this ground than boundaries in other IPL grounds. Jerome Taylor, replacing Wayne Parnell, played his first match for Pune today and took 3 wickets. None of the bowlers had his economy rate above 8, which is quite commendable in this format of the game.

Now, coming to second innings, somehow there was no urge shown by the batsmen to make runs. Yuvraj, the captain, led the team in this front. He was very very tired and was sweating like a pig. Today was just not his day. Ashwin bowled superbly coupled with Bollinger. Most of the bowlers were very low on economy rate as per game standards. Chennai were superb on the field, and saved around 15-20 just by saving the boundaries and singles. Manish Pandey failed to create an impression on his Pune debut. It seemed that Pune were too complacent with the batting. In the end, even 142 seemed a mammoth total to chase, partly because of the slow nature of the pitch, which was clearly visible with the number of mis-hits by the Pune batsmen. Pune lost the game by 25 runs.

The net result of this was that Chennai won a critical game and are still in race for the semi-final spot. They have a reputation of making a good come back. Lets see, how the path unfolds for the defending champions from here.

Introduction

This blog is dedicated to various genres of my thoughts - my job, my hobbies, national issues, interesting puzzles, TV series reviews, daily scribblings or anything that I feel needs to be recorded for future reference. I hope that I can gain a lot from this new friend. Today, I start on a new journey - the one that never ends.