Debugging Tip: Take a break

In a Programmers life, debugging is an indispensable part. Many of the debugging are interesting, and sometimes addictive. It becomes so addictive that u cant concentrate on other works, until that bug is fixed or that problem is solved. Sometimes the debugging can take u to one more level namely "frustration". This happens for the most complex problems, less reproducible issues. If u see that the issue takes u in a recursive ride, landing in the same problem again and again, and no window of resolution, u might get bogged up in the same "square 1" position.
One better way to handle this situation is to "take a break". Depending on the level of frustration, u got to take a break. If its minor issue, u can just step out from ur cubicle, have a chat with ur friends, Go out for a walk, Grab the newspapaer in the reception lobby and spend some time in TT room. If it is very complex issue, and u had spend many days fighting at the issue, take a long break, half a day or a day. Change ur mind, so that u forget the code that u are looking for days. When u comeback from such break, I bet u, u wud find a break through in ur debugging.
Happy Debugging !

Inspiring Oration by Vineet Nayar

Today we had annual business meet in HCL. This was the second time, I had an opportunity to hear from Vineet Nayyar, President of our company, HCL Technologies Ltd., The previous time was one year ago. We were a crowd of leads and managers gathered at St John's auditorium.
The speech given by Vineet was so much inspiring and thought provoking that it made me a fan of Vineet, so did for most of the HCLites. The talk were not completely focussed on Business strategies alone. It was personality centric too. I got a lot of points to improve myself and evolve myself to innovate.
The concept of Focus, Lead, Dominate that he introduced 1 year before, can be applicable for any industry and market. First we got to focus on our goal, try to Lead the market, and dominate in space.
If we are working in a group, say we are playing a match, say a loosing side, one should be a Transformer, so as to act as a catalyst and boost for the teams comeback and victory.
I always liked aggressive leaders like Nethaji Subash. I like Vineet's aggressive spirit too. The concept that we have to deliver more value rather than volume, holds good in any of our day to day activities, even in personal life.
The attitude of approaching a customer was explained well. When u see a customer, do not try to sell the stuff u already did, or do not show the solutions, instead speak to him understand his pain, his problem and then try to sell the cure.
Vineet encouraged that its ok to make mistakes, infact we should be courageous to do something and make mistakes, but learn from them. If something you did and it suceeded, try to analyse what unique point made the success.
For all those aspiring guys like me, Vineet's philosophy are practical, very doable, and inspiring !

Organizer: Have one at ur google home

There are lot of Google gadgets that are very cool. This one is very handy, in organizing the day to day tasks and planning the tasks. I was trying different free-wares, that would be useful for day to day planning. This one was best among them so far. This is called "To-Do List+". It is simple. You can add this gadget in your google customized home page.
Daily, in the morning, when you go to office, you can login to Google. You can think of the tasks of the day and Just add them on to the To-do lists. As the day progress, u can keep on adding the new tasks. You can even set priorities and dates for the tasks. As and when you complete the tasks, you can close the tasks. This is very handy on-the-fly organizer.
At Office, you may think of doing some personal works at home, on the same day or the next day. You may forget it when you go home. Using this "To Do plus" tool, you can add the tasks to be done at home. At home, you can login to see the tasks that you saved in the morning. This way, you wont miss anything. And most of all this is very simple, fast and handy.
Happy Organizing and accomplishing!

Daily retrospect

In bachelor's life, mostly, we don’t spend time alone, as we are always in a circle of friends. I realized that, one must spend some time alone, may be a 30 minutes daily for retrospection. A 30 minutes seems to be very easy, but is not. Most of the time at office we are with colleagues. At home u are always surrounded by friends, room-mates or some one in phone.
A retrospect in that 30 minutes would keep one always accountable for himself. Personally I feel these retrospect would help individuals to identify his strengths and to help work out his vision in practice. One can plan things that are needed for long run as well as to accomplish short term goals like “doing tomorrows work”.