Made To Stick

Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath is delightful book about how to have our ideas and thoughts find its way in to the minds of our audience effectively. The key aspects of information that make them click are explained with loads of interesting anecdotes. The authors by dissecting ideas that have stuck strongly with the people bring out the essential ingredients of sticky ideas. There are six principles at work in making ideas last for long.

Simplicity: Ideas must be compact and at the same time have the ability to have a strong impact. The audience should be able to easily find the core message. The core should be profound as well. We shouldn’t bury the core by making our message complex.

Unexpectedness: When we are trying to get our point across to an audience we need to break their expectations. We should shatter their current understanding, surprise them and pull them in. Curiosity and interest needs to be created by filling out gaps in their understanding. This way we grab their attention.

Concreteness: Avoid abstractions. Concrete ideas tend to be in human understandable terms. While abstract thoughts leave the audience struggling to decode on what is being conveyed, concrete ideas let the crux of the matter quickly stick. The audience would understand the ideas better and remember them as well.

Credibility: People will be ready to hear you out only if your ideas have credibility. Give them an ample set of proofs that would enable them to asses for themselves the credibility of ideas.

Emotions: Our ideas need to touch audiences’ emotions. This way we can make them care for our ideas. The audience must feel, experience some kind of emotions when hearing our ideas.

Stories: If we wish that people act on our ideas, we need to present them with stories that let them picture themselves in the stories. This way people will try to act and try out things as was told in the stories. Stories enable us to imagine. They inspire us.

All these principles are explained in a lucid manner with lot of anecdotes that makes the intention of the book stick in the minds of readers! I enjoyed reading the book and I recommend it.

The Development Process

Steve Maguire's book Debugging the Development Process is an indispensable one to any engineer who is involved in software development task in any ways. Reading through the book, I was enlightened about the mistakes that I do and the wrong practices that software developers/leads and managers in general follow. I have resolved to put in practice his suggestions. And also its time that I dust Steve's other fine book Writing Solid Code from my book shelf and have it in my work desk for constant reference.

Bijapur

Thanks to my friend's wedding in Bijapur last week, I had the opportunity to visit the historic city.Gol Gumbaz and Ibrahim Rouza are the most prominent monuments in Bijapur.

More images can be found in my flickr page .

Aramane

Aramane was disappointing. In the initial moments the crux of the story is revealed and I found it quite interesting and was expecting a good watch. Ganesh is a photographer who tries to get the separated family of Ananth Nag together again. But the screen play falters in presenting the story convincingly. Ganesh tries to shoulder the movie by his wit and timed dialogues. His quips most of the time are no doubt humorous, but that alone cannot engage the audience. Gurukiran’s score is average. Aramane can be watched only to get few genuine laughs, thanks to Ganesh’s witticism a la Tamil’s Parthiban. Otherwise it can safely be skipped.

Coding and Testing

Code is not ready for release until unit test cases are run and verified. It is always recommended that this rule is religiously followed no matter how little changes that the programmer might have done. Recently I had to relearn this rule the hard way. Confident that nothing would have got broken with the kind of changes that I did, I merged the changes to mainline with out complete testing. The code was released to the test team. And when I attend the office the next day and check my mail, there is a high severity bug reported. A bug so severe it had blocked a huge chunk of test cases of the test team. I had to resubmit the code with the fix sooner. The fix was trivial, thanks to Rational clearcase, I could diff the versions of code and find the cause for the issue. The lessons learnt are, always do complete analysis of the difference b/w the mainline code which has been thoroughly tested and the changed version before merging the codes. And do exhaustive testing before release of the code to avoid the test team report embarrassing issues. The time for testing might be greater than the time invested for writing code but still DO the testing. Lastly I would say that I have fallen in love with the Rational clearcase. I haven’t had experience on any other but I say any amount that might be quoted for the license of the tool is highly justifiable!

IPL

The IPL cricket has begun. But somehow I am not finding it a least bit interesting. The first thing that puts me off with IPL is the names of the teams in the tournament. A huge amount of money has been thrown in, still no creative thought given in naming the teams! I am not an avid fan of cricket. But if at all I watch it on TV is just when players like Sachin and Lara are in their flow. The T20 is just going to display mediocre cricketing skills and one would not get to see graceful cricket.

The Divide

Extract from Arundhati Roy 's article "Listening To Grasshoppers" in Outlook:

..the era of the free market has led to the most successful secessionist struggle ever waged in India the secession of the middle and upper classes to a country of their own, somewhere up in the stratosphere where they merge with the rest of the world's elite. This Kingdom in the Sky is a complete universe in itself, hermetically sealed from the rest of India. It has its own newspapers, films, television programmes, morality plays, transport systems, malls and intellectuals. its own class struggles. An organisation called Youth for Equality, for example, has taken up the issue of Reservations, because it feels Upper Castes are discriminated against by India's pulverised Lower Castes. It has its own People's Movements and candle-light vigils (Justice for Jessica, the model who was shot in a bar) and even its own People's Car (the Wagon for the Volks launched by the Tata Group recently). It even has its own dreams that take the form of TV advertisements in which Indian CEOs (smeared with Fair & Lovely Face Cream, Men's) buy over international corporations, including an imaginary East India Company. They are ushered into their plush new offices by fawning white women (who look as though they're longing to be laid, the final prize of conquest) and applauding white men, ready to make way for the new kings. Meanwhile, the crowd in the stadium roars to its feet (with credit cards in its pockets) chanting 'India! India!'

Many might dismiss her as just being mere rhetoric, but give it a thought, you would agree with the crux of her arguments. And I do.

Jack The Ripper

When History Channel on cable TV announced that the film Jack the Ripper would be screened in the weekend that passed I recalled reading long back an article on the film in Deccan herald. The author had said that the film was a masterpiece worth seeing many times. I didn't want to miss the movie and I watched it. The author had got it right. The film is indeed a masterpiece. The movie is based on the true events that occurred in London in the year 1888.Wikipedia quotes -"Jack the Ripper is an alias given to an unidentified serial killer (or killers) active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of London, England in the latter half of 1888"

Everything was done to perfection in the movie. The story telling and the background score were excellent. What impressed me most was the performance by each actor in the movie, particularly Sir Michael Caine in the role of Detective Inspector Frederick Abberline. Each had done their best. There certainly would be repeat telecast of the movie. Do watch it. To quote from the article mentioned earlier -for the subtleties and complexities in movie are truly worth savoring.

Nodi Swamy Navirode Heege!

What an irony! In the month in which Karnataka should be celebrating it’s Rajyosthava it is under President’s rule. It is a shameful political drama that Karnataka is witnessing presently. Amidst all the noise a particular message from the political class is clear - nodi swamy navirode heege!

Nothing But Gimmickry

If you think that the hype and hoopla seen with the release of the Bollywood movies Om Shanti Om and Saawariya is nothing but gimmickry, read this article that appeared in Deccan Herald. The reason is apparent as to why pretty decent movies like Iyarkai, which has the same story line as that of Saawariya, go largely unnoticed but Saawariya receives more attention than what it deserves. The hype makes you believe that you need to watch the movies else you will be the odd person in the crowd.

Azhagiya Thamizh Magan

Vijay plays a dual role in a movie, which is devoid of a strong storyline.All other characters, is inconsequential. A R Rahman's score passes through your ears. I think, we cannot expect any more breath taking music from A R Rahman; at least as far as his contribution to Tamil cinema is concerned. Rajni in his later part of career started making movies, which were powered by his presence alone, Vijay tries it quiet too early. Give the movie a miss. Watch it when it is on TV. But wait, do yourself a favour - give that a miss as well.

BMTC

Bangalore's public bus transport facility maintained by the BMTC ought to be the best in the country. Its service and quality of the buses that ply have improved by many fold over the years. This I can assert because BMTC buses have been my companion over the last 10 years or so. And Chennai's Pallavan transport should be among the worst.

Ramanujan - The Man Who Knew Infinity

Roberts Kanigel's "The Man Who Knew Infinity" was an interesting read. The book is about Srinivasa Ramanujan’s incredible life and his Mathematics. The author details the life of the math genius in an accessible manner even for a reader who is remote to the kind of work Ramanujan excelled. The author succeeds in this because he does not dwell into the esoteric areas of Mathematics in which Ramanujan excelled but just makes a succinct reference to his works wherever necessary.

The story begins with an account of Ramanujan’s birthplace, Kumbakonam and his school education. Ramanujan faltered in all subjects but Mathematics. He stood apart from the rest in the way he worked out his favorite subject. After initial struggle in getting spotted as a boy with bundle of talent he does come to be recognized as a person with real mathematical skills. The significant recognition does not come from India but from England. Failing to find anyone in India who would properly understand him, he is advised to write to Cambridge and other places of repute. He writes to couple of distinguished Mathematicians in England for assistance only to be disappointed. But fate has it that he also writes to G. H Hardy. And Hardy responded with a keen interest in Ramanujan’s works. That was enough to spread the name of Ramanujan across the educated circle in South India. Hardy’s endorsement helps Ramanujan in getting rewarded with a scholarship. This enabled him to do his Mathematics at will not needing to care about his daily mores of his personal life, which had become a concern having been wedded at a young age. Hardy invites him to Cambridge and after initial apprehensions Ramanujan crosses seas against his caste traditions.

The author dedicates a chapter on Hardy, which gives a very good insight to the stuff that he is made of. The author does well in bringing out his love of Mathematics, penchant for Cricket, his atheism and much more. Then begins the engrossing passage of the book, Ramanujan’s life in Cambridge. Ramanujan finds in Hardy much-needed companion. Their ‘friendship’ and the work together would become a stuff of legend later. Though Hardy helped Ramanujan in finding his true self by enabling him to do his Mathematics, he failed to be friend at personal social level. The seven years that Ramanujan spends in Cambridge wrecks havoc to Ramanujan’s personal life. He remains totally unaware of most of the happenings back home. The straining of relationship between his mother and wife and many such painful events occur in India These and his staunch vegetarianism has him afflicted with Tuberculosis. But the work he does in Cambridge earns him a Fellow of Royal Society [FRS].

He returns to India as a FRS only to be pulled into the struggle of social life. His mathematical contribution remains at a minimal. Unable to cope up with pressures of life and unyielding health problems he passes away at a young age of thirty-two. The passage of his life towards the end makes for a sad reading. One can only wonder what could have been if only Ramanujan was healthy and lived for many more years.

I appreciate the author’s skill in writing the biography of one of enigmatic figures of India in a lucid manner. A very good read and I highly recommend it.

Bug Fixes

Fixing a bug in an application, which uses a third party stack is always challenging especially if it isn't obvious at outset where the problem lies. Recently I was up against two such issues in the application that I code. The fascinating thing is that both required a single line change of code but almost twenty man-days to find out which line to change! The multithreaded client application uses the OpenSSL stack to secure the communication with the server. One issue was significant memory leak and the other a crash. Both issues did not give direct pointers to the buggy code.

Valgrind is a very good tool for debugging memory leak issues. It reported 3k bytes of leak for every connection that was made to the server. The mailing list gave hints to the solution. After about ten days of analysis and help from top-notch developer in team it turned that I was using an OpenSSL API incorrectly. The fix turned out to be calling a different method than what I was using.

The application crash problem was tougher. It couldn't make it to the targeted release of the product. The crash was occurring when the application was heavily stressed. The mailing list was of not much help. After days of investigation it turned out that the bug was in the OpenSSL code. The OpenSSL method of getting thread IDs was failing in the Linux kernel 2.6. The implementation returned the same ID for every thread. As such the stack was to be changed to fix the issue. And even this time the fix is just a change in one line of the code. Here too I should be thanking my friend who helped me in having the issue fixed and the product released. It helps in having a high quality developer in the team as very good friend of yours!

Crazy Ho Gaya!

I watched Dhoom-2 on TV. It is one hell of a hilarious movie. The movie is dud but never mind it is fun. ‘Serious’ moments are outright comical and comedy is bland. I forgive Sivaji.

Math Atheist!

Sivaji

Sivaji saw an unprecedented pre release media attention. And the movie fails to deliver in a manner, which would justify the hype. A bad screenplay fails the movie big-time. The movie is devoid of common sense even at microscopic level and is surprising given the fact that Sujatha has penned the dialogues. Rajinikanth might satisfy his die-hard fans to some extent with his screen presence, but if one was expecting another Baasha, it’s a big letdown. The comedy for most part is naïve and at times crass. The conflict between the hero and villain isn’t presented effectively. Money has been spent lavishly on songs, which are mediocre, by ARR standards.

The biggest flaw is the way the story has been told. Events seem disconnected. One scene does not lead to the other. It appears like the director/writer was content if he succeeds to feed the larger than life image of Rajinikanth. Apart from Vivek none else get much time on screen. Even the anti hero character is denied its fair share. The movie I feel has necessary flaws to have become another disaster like Baba for Rajinikanth. But thanks to the marketing that was done during the course of the filmmaking and prior to its release the movie has survived. It has been declared a hit.

Pet Peeves...

The more I listen to the FM radio stations, the greater my distaste for them becomes. Even after I had vented my frustration in one of my earlier post, I am not at peace. I find myself arguing with those who listen to FM radio regularly.

What have the 24 /7 news channels become these days? They would give entertainment channels run for their money. These channels when watched do nothing but add noise to my understanding of what’s happening around me. There are many channels but too little to offer worth while. I would be better off with just my daily newspaper.

All shows in which you are given advice as to how to improve your life by means of numerology, gemology, tarot reading and such nonsense. These kinds of shows hog the air time of most of the Tamil channels. There is one show in which a crackpot called Satyamurthy claims that he has cures for AIDS and tumors. Wonder why there has not been any PIL filed against the flourish of pseudoscience in society? May be I should.

The Tamil film music scene. Is there one song which has come in recent time which would stand the test of time? Which has moved you? Which had you in rapture? Sadly none and gems of IR and ARR loaded in my iPod have not been replaced for quite a long time.

I cannot stand theBangalore traffic. It’s getting worse.

Editorials and Humour

The Editorials written in the New Scientist magazine never fail to impress me. When commenting on science that has wider social implications like global warming, its opinions are always honest. One should read magazines like New Scientist to form an opinion on matters like science and religion, impact of science on society at large and so on. And Feedback is another column which I enjoy reading in this science and technology magazine of repute.

Now some humour from Feedback:

Computer rage

FROM the department of computer rage: Peter Brennan was working with the latest version of Adobe's Dreamweaver. When he tried to use the "recent files" list to open a file not available on his network, a box popped up saying, "No error occurred". The only other thing on the box was a button saying "OK". He pressed it and the box disappeared, but the file he wanted didn't open. He tried to open the file again and the same thing happened. Whereupon he took out a gun and shot his computer.

No, he didn't - but we wouldn't blame him if he had.

Cheeni Kum

Ilayaraja has recreated three of his classics for Cheeni Kum. Its amazing how the songs sound contemporary even after a decade or so and not like a remixed version. Orchestration has his signature. Though the songs are good I wish the interludes in the originals were retained. May be it wouldn't have suited given the Bollywood's style of music. It is to be seen how this album is received by Bollywood.