Work and the Tea Shop...

Nowadays we have started visiting the tea shop near our office more frequently, almost 5 times a day. I wonder why… probably because our team management shifted to some new guys; probably we became complacent; or probably we just got too tired; probably all the above.

It is that phase of a project where you think you have done it all and you expect something in return besides just getting your salary paid. I personally have been given high ratings in my appraisals and have been promised a lot of special skill bonuses, so I would not crib too much.

But then, work has slowed down tremendously or that is the way I feel. The bunch of people managing our team are more focused on just taking control over things, thereby not giving us the freedom on our work and that rapidly decelerates the progress. I am sure this phase would not last for long. Things will improve… and the guy who runs the tea shop will quickly realize that when it happens.

Flex Time

The last 3 to 4 weeks were terribly tiresome. The application that we were building was already running on a stiff deadline and we had entered into the meat of it at this point. It was thrilling to execute everything that was earlier planned. I kept foraging my desk draw for the invaluable information I had had hurriedly scribbled some weeks back. They help me to remind myself of what exactly was discussed. Somehow, no soft copy could do that for me.

Anyways, working late night continuously has helped me gain some decent level of fluency in coding with Flex. The Java Web Services were pretty straightforward.
Also, since I was at times given company by my colleague who is from Orissa, I have learnt how to swear in Orriya. I often swear at the Flex builder for being so shamelessly slow or at some of the insipid methods or definitions in ActionScript.

Somehow a few of the bigger challenges have been taken care of. There are a few more to go before we reach the comfort zone. Of course, when the testing phase is on it could all come down – but then that is a different story altogether.

Could it get any better?

In one of my earlier posts, there was this interesting comment from a friend of mine:

“.. it is not often that people write about how wonderful their days were..”

- which I think is perfectly true in most cases. So my dear friend here goes.

1. At work, we made a presentation of a small system (which we had been building in the last few weeks) to the Finance team and they were totally bowled over by the perfect way we had trapped the system requirement in our design. Yeah baby!
   
   
2. There was this other project which had to be designed based on the R&D done over the past few weeks. Working non-stop for 2 days at a stretch, I had proposed a design architecture factoring in all scenarios – and it got approved. Fist Bump!
   
   
3. Good riddance of the cold – I am now healthy as a horse. So is everyone at home.
   
   
4. All my iPod’s are fully charged, and I am listening to ‘em as I type this.
   
   
5. My phone line is restored, internet is back.
   
   
6. I caught up with some old friends online and also some people from my previous employment. It was so nice to see emails from all of them. Fills me with pleasant memories
   
   
7. My friend who was hurting from an accident is now quickly recovering.
   
   
8. I hired another guy to get my construction work at home and that will be taken care of.
   

Funny how things can take a turn around in just a few days.

Now I wonder – Could it get any better?...

Could it get any worse?

The last two weeks were probably the worst days I have had in a long time now. When things go down, they go down together.

1. At work, we lost a good opportunity which came our way, due to the incessant stupidity of a few managers. They never learn.
2. At home, the construction work that we had started a couple months back went on a standstill.
3. I caught up with a terrible cold and was sick all these days, giving company to the rest of the victims at home.
4. A friend of mine met with an accident and had bruised herself so badly. Another friend of mine (who owes me money) never returned my calls.
5. My phone line at home went bust and along with that went my internet too.
6. Back to work, I was asked to help another team with some R&D on a “product” they were building and things looked a little bit, or I should say pretty much hopeless. I need to wait and see how that comes along.

Burdened with all this and more, I woke up to this Saturday morning praying to see some change of luck. My prayers were answered with a power failure, goddamnit. I called up the service guys and find out that the power wouldn’t be restored until 5 in the evening. Load shedding – they call it. Yeah I heard them right.

Not having anything to do and not in a position to go out anywhere, I had to find myself something to keep me occupied. I sifted through the newspaper but could never really focus on any news. I found this Sudoku puzzle.

I have never tried one before, so I decided to give it a shot. I realized an hour later, how miserable I was. After spending all that time and thinking that I had solved almost 60% of the puzzle, I found I was wrong all the way through. I knew I had to backtrack but I did not know from what point I had to resume. I then noticed something – Below the puzzle there were these words: DIFFICULTY RATING and beside that were five stars, of which only one, was shaded. DAMN! That was one of the easiest puzzles, and I went through with it for so long, and was left with just a messy piece of paper, pencil markings all over, so brutally treated that it would tear the next time you write on.

I did not feel like eating at all. Anything I tried to eat, tasted so bitter. I would have listened to some music if only I had charged my iPod. I picked up a book to read which I had left unfinished for almost a year now. I had to read through some of the earlier pages to remind myself of the plot and to get re-introduced with the characters. The story could not get any more predictable; at one point I even felt that I could have done a better job. The story writer just was not capable of keeping secrets. She had littered clues all over the place like a stray dog.

I then remembered where I had bought this book. It was a roadside shop near Harvard Square. I should have left it were it belonged.

I was patiently waiting for the power to be restored, wondering if a day could get any worse than this. I hope not…

Opportunity Lost

I am typing this out of complete irritation on what happened over the last few days at work. A Singapore client, who had recently shifted away from us, came back with one last request for an urgent requirement. A website needed to be revamped, scheduled to be completed by July 2nd. Since the new support team based out of Beijing would need some time to ramp up, they emailed us with whatever requirement information they had.

The first email arrived on Thursday the 21st of this month. We promptly had a conference call to discuss the feasibility of the changes and to hash out our initial doubts. The call went well and we were informed about the rough timelines targeted. The stakeholder from the client side asked us to explore and provide options on different approaches to quickly get this website revamped.

Our Project manager promised to send the estimates either the same day or on Monday, the 25th. Within the next 4 hours, I went through the style guide, wire frame and specs that had been provided and came up with a reasonably fair estimate. Again, to explain the estimation techniques followed by people here I would need to dedicate an entire post here. Anyways, I was open for any change. The estimation went for a total of 11 revisions in the next two days. Every time they wanted me to revise, the request was to increase the man days. I am quoting my manager here - “Can you please make the coding and unit testing as 31 days instead of 22?”

This approach defeats the whole purpose of estimation. He never really tells me what he fears about the project when I ask him and now, I don’t even know what his real intention is – does he want to take up this project or not? I personally, would never even think of letting a project like this pass by, especially when there are over a dozen resources warming the bench already.

While things were at this state, next arrived the big blow. It was decided to get this reviewed by another project manager. Trust me this “other guy” is a real scumbag. The only credential he has to himself is that he was actually an employee of this client company in Singapore. As expected, he let his whims and fancies to cut loose and started babbling. He felt the already bloated estimate was too “optimistic” and was so confident that it can never be completed as per our estimate. Now that hurts. But what hurts more is the way the rest of the ass holes swayed their head in acceptance.

I usually reserve a separate worksheet for jotting down the assumptions and to point out the questions if any. It is a common practice followed in all estimations. He looked at that and said you may first have to clarify all these points before you can send the actual effort estimate. When informed that the estimate is already overdue, his reaction was fantastic. To quote him exactly – “So what? They sent the request last Thursday, right? You can even reply after this Thursday. Who cares? …”

Who cares??? I am like – “Goddamnit I care! … What has gone into him?” Does this dipshit not realize the phase we are going through? We could at least cut on some operational costs for the next couple months.

After almost a week since the initial request came, the only reply that went from our side was this –
“We have a few assumptions and questions. Please arrange for a conf call. We can then prepare the estimates.”

SAD! PATHETIC! – I felt like screaming.
It has been three days since and there has been no reply from her.

God, I miss my previous company in this aspect. Those guys were smart and encouraged me in that front. Not even in the faintest dreams can I see them letting this slip through. They would have devoured this opportunity.

Maybe I am wrong in understanding this whole situation. Maybe the client was testing the waters. Maybe all she wanted was an estimate to benchmark with. But STILL, there was at least some chance for us to get some billable work for a few weeks.

The point I would like to stress here is – WE NEVER EVEN TRIED. We missed this one right under our nose. And I hate it when I come to think that I could not do anything about it.

Thiruvilayadal - Nagesh Sivaji Comedy - Tamil mp3

Just like many others, I spend almost 70% of my time in front of my computer – coding. I got used with listening to music while I am at it. It helps me a lot by preventing any external distractions especially when I am doing tasks which are repetitive, not involving much of any thinking process.

A friend of mine once gave me a bunch of S.Ve Shekar and Crazy Mohan drama’s in mp3 format and I seriously got hooked to it. Having got used to listening to comedy, I wanted more and started ripping off some of my favorites from as many videos I could. Here is one of my all time favorite – Thiruvilayadal 

http://music.cooltoad.com/music/song.php?id=399173

Nagesh is Dharumi and Lord Siva aptly played by Sivaji, tries to help him. But eventually the Dharumi gets bullied by Chief Poet – Nakkeerar played by A.P.Nagarajan (who also happens to be the director of the movie). All of this because the King (Muthuraman) had a stupid doubt when he was fondling his wife:

Of course, the charm in “watching” would be missing, but having watched these scenes over a million times, they roll in my head as I listen to it. 

Nagesh - Great comedian with the veteran Sivaji Ganesan – some good humor and great Tamil dialogues.

Stop staring at my desktop!!!

I don’t know if it is just me who feels this way, but I hate it when people at work peep into your monitor especially when you are reading your emails. I think it is unethical and just portrays a person’s ill manners.

It is fine if I invite someone to see something, but I just can’t stand people staring at my desktop, seeing what I am typing. It is each one’s private space. Please don’t freaking invade it!

Ah good, here is this person reading this already as I am typing it…and now he has turned his head away…as if he knew nothing… Great! Hope it stays that way forever.