Maneesh's Blog

Linkin Park playlist

2007-12-02T12:39:00.001-08:00

I'm addicted to this playlist...launch the 'Standalone Player' for the full songs...

The physics of life

2007-08-05T22:11:00.000-07:00

I would have been a Physicist if I had not chosen CS as a career.
And like anybody interested in physics, two of the scientists whose works I admire the most are Richard Feynman, and Albert Einstein. Of late, I started coming across quotations by Einstein on my customized iGoogle page. I never though of him as a philosopher, but his quotations are quite thoughtful.
Here's one, summarizing 2 of the most complex concepts I've ever come across... :)

"Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."

Corporate success

2007-06-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

Business Week is a good read, second only to The Economist. It carries articles in 'bite-size' forms, as compared to deep essays in the latter. Coming to what I want to talk about; I was reading this article about how MBA coaches are making a gazzilion bucks out of 'helping' students work on their business school applications; which of-course causes the usual blurring of the fine line of what fits the definition of this 'help' ethically.
Personally, I believe that coaches can help the people who have very limited knowledge about the application process, but to help them write your application essays is something I would consider un-ethical, for obvious reasons. But then again, from the kind of candidates I've seen go into some very desirable B-schools, I'm led to (I might be wrong...) believe that a majority of applicants are accepted because they come with the guarantee of success, either because they've already excelled in their careers (which I believe is what the schools are looking for), or because they already come from successful networked families with a Trust fund already in their name.
What happened to the promise of education wherein you could came in raw, and were polished by your training! We never hear of the B-schools who've selected solely based on 'promising attitudes', mainly because there has been no study done to analyze the performance of business grads with corrections for their potential for success because of their family backgrounds.
If you start high in the ladder, and don't F up too much, you're probably going up! - I guess this is the motto everybody follows.
Anyhow, the world of business as I see it is pretty cruel for an average person. Corporate environments are full of silos based on strong alumnae, and where you go in your career depends on the brand you carry with you. If so much is against you, is'nt it justified for an average person to resort to 'help' to get that brand name, to correct things in their disadvantage? Probably not...these schools were never going to accept an 'average' person anyway!
As a scientist, this makes no sense to me, because Science, as I've know it has been a field where how much you rise is solely based on your talent and creativity.

Disturbed...

2007-04-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

We all read what happened in VTech this week, and we all felt the pain, because not too long ago, most of us were struggling students in similar colleges. But the fact that such delusional individuals exist does not surprise me one bit.
I personally came across a lot of them in college...and this is a story of one of them. This individual was from Taiwan, real nice guy, but really disturbed. He was my neighbour when I was renting a studio in upstate NY. There was a lot not working for him, he was not doing well in college, his personal life was going no where, and his parents were going thru a messy divorce. So he went into his own world, he used to get military equipment catalogs, and show me the knives he was always interested in getting. This was a seemingly harmless individual that would not hurt a soul, but his other side was this man who would resort to buying military grade knives, jump-suits to probably fill up the gap of security in his life.
He used to confide in me a lot, and still calls me up (it's been 4 years since I last saw him). He lives a 'seemingly' quiet life in VA (yes...ironical), and it makes me wonder how far he has progressed in his second life.
This is a cruel culture, a culture of fitting in. I had the fortune of experiencing High School in the Midwest for a year when I was a kid. Kids were really mean. There were groups of people based on their color, their neighbourhoods, and god knows what else. It's not difficult for any person going through adolescence to get disillusioned in this culture, to develop hatred and finally be driven to violence. But does anything justify taking lives? No.
My heart goes out to the parents of the bright souls that lost their lives at VT, but I feel the society needs to do some introspection as to why children are driven to such a mental state in the first place.

Minutes to Midnight

2007-03-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

I've been touched deeply by only 2 bands so far, one of them being Linkin Park. I remember choosing 'I tried so hard' as the theme song for our System Programming course in college. I guess the reason you usually attach yourself to some music (warning...philosophy) is because life is usually not in much rhythm, and music is (more than life usually). Relating to it is attractive, because we would like to inject the same harmony in our lives, and music sometimes is the inspiration for that. I fell in love with this band was because I can always personally relate to their lyrics reminding me of the struggles we all went through while growing up. Listen to them, you'll know what I'm talking about.
I truly believe there's yet to be a band that has created their own niche genre in Rock music. Their innovative lyrics along with the very unique Alternative + Punk rock blend is a killer combination. Add to it their videos, and you have probably the best alternative music out there. So I have been scrounging around trying to find more about their upcoming album "Minutes to Midnight" which I have been eagerly waiting for (comes out on May 15'th). The best I could hear was a short clip at some random place. What I did find was their own channel on YouTube, which hosts some of their videos. So if you're like me and are crazy about their music, this is where you should be going.
Here are three pretty amazing songs:

Los Angeles (on crack!)

2007-03-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

I always look forward to travelling. It is so entertaining sitting around the waiting area looking at people, but you don't expect entertainment when you are walking around the terminal. I got fortunate this time.
So I got off the plane at LAX, and started walking towards the Baggage claim area. It's strange, when I decided to move to Los Angeles, people told me that in show business most of the people are on crack, and really rich.
It's seriously true, when I'm driving down to meet up with a good friend who lives in West Hollywood, I can notice how irate the drivers get as I move closer to Hollywood fwy! Coming back to my original story...so I have this very pretty blond lady in front of me, very well dressed, sporting a Burberry hat, and a Starbucks coffee in one hand. What I didn't notice is that she was pushing a luggage cart...normal for the airport. We headed to the escalator, and before I knew it, she's screaming and shouting. I moved forward to help, and saw that she had actually been pushing a long luggage cart, and actually decided to take it down the escalator with her! How dumb!! I mean any person who has any common sense would know that a stair on the escalator would not be wide enough to support the cart. I was not very shocked, but very very amused. Nevertheless, I moved forward to help, and the first thing she was screaming was for people to save her scarf, which had reached the bottom of the stairs from the coffee fast approaching it down one of the stairs. Again, very amusing...considering she had a considerable amount of luggage falling all over the place, and she still managed to prioritize her scarf. I helped a little bit, but then decided to move on...almost sadistically, considering she was able bodied clean up her stupidity. Not the first time I've been amused by dumb (or under the influence) people in LA, but definitely the first at LAX.

Born into social handicap

2006-11-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

I came across this interesting article today on bbc. I feel proud, that we, an orthodox Indian society are helping the ones we have outcasted in our society for centuries.
This reminded me of an incident when i was a kid. There used to be this eunuch who my mother hired to cook for us. It was quite an interesting time, when I discovered how much we, as orthodox indian people had strong views and judgments about people. My mother is very liberal, and she wanted to help out this person who had been outcasted by the eunuch society because she (they like to be referred to as females in India) had gone away from her like, and decided to pursue a normal working life. It started with most of the people who worked in my house, like my gardener, my driver boycotting their duties. They were so uncomfortable in being around her. I'll be honest, I asked my mother why it was that we could not hire a more 'normal' person. My mother shared with me some wisdom, she told me that many of us are born with some handicaps, and unfortunately for these people, they are also born with a handicap, and they should not be penalized for something that they were born into...life is hard enough for them.
I think women are much more comfortable with homosexuality, and transsexuality than men. I almost felt that I as a man (a growing man at that time) had been outcasted by other men by making such a move. I also opposed her working in the house.
After about a week or so, she left, saying she did not like the work...I'm sure she sensed that she was not invited in the house by the other men. I was relieved.
As I matured, and grew up, I became more comfortable with myself, and have started accepting people for what they are. My mother's words of wisdom echo in my head every time I try to judge people who are homosexual or transsexual, which I come across quite often in the American society. I felt a warmth inside me when I read this article, and knew how effective this measure would mean for every creditor who would like their money asap, just knowing how uncomfortable people in India are in terms of dealing with Eunuchs.

google on...

2006-10-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

So you could not be here without google, some of you might have reached here by googling your way thru the sea of endless links before coming upon this article.
I write this because I feel it my duty to write about how much of an impact this site has had on my life, and most of yours. I could not have completed my Masters degree without the help of google, and could not have survived the IT industry either. Like you, I depend on it (and off late, Wikipedia) for insight into most of the things I have never heard of.
Well, for the fortunate few who jumped the stock bandwagon when google went public, and made 385% profit (stocks was at 485 when I last tracked it), congratulations, and guess what, you're in part responsible for the shape of the internet future. For example, google could not afford buying Youtube for 1.5 billion if it was'nt for the profit they have made due to their stocks going through the roof. Even if it turns out as a total loss, they will still be richer by about 3.5 billion! (they made around 5 b due to the stock market).
I read a hilarious cartoon in Business Week recently, where 2 scientists are discussing the N.Korea nuclear standoff, and one of them is commenting 'Why can't google just buy N. Korea, and get this over with!'

Attitude

2006-09-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

Off late, as I go from one job to another (which I seem to be doing quite often since the beginning of my career), I've found one similarity. It is that knowledge brings arrogance. I've met some very talented people in this field, and I broadly categorize them in two types. The ones who are so sure of their capabilities that they will want to believe (and sometimes make you understand) that the sun rises in the West if they had to. Another type are the ones I can never become, the ones who are the most humble, who will treat every word you say with equal weight, who will never let you know how good they are, until you see thier work. And yes, the third kinds are like me, newbies exploring the world, trying to fit in, hoping we don't fall into the first category.
Maybe it's age. I've notices as we grow older, we get more opinionated. I've noticed that about myself, I'm one of the most opinionated buggers I know of. I guess receding hairlines, and decreasing metabolisms does that to us. However, I still ponder what it is that makes us lose our humility, or atleast demonstrate to the world as if we have lost it. I guess it's survival of the fittest. Again, re-quoting from my review of a movie that I saw...it's not good against evil anymore, it's the fittest of various shades of evil trying to strike a balance between doing the least harm, and surviving.

Deep...

2006-08-27T17:16:00.000-07:00

My independence is calling my name

A doubtful voice divides my faith

My independence only hesitates

An unsure choice I can't embrace

You're gonna have to carve me,

Carve me from stone

Right to the bone or

I'll end up alone

Playing the role

Of someone in control

Why do I rush to slow down

Why do I rush to slow down everything

Will the dice ever roll

When will I ever know

Will the plot ever twist

Or will I still resist

I've been playing the part of a lost realist

Trapt - Lost Realist

Hide or show a control in ASP.NET using JavaScript

2006-08-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

Seems quite simple right...just toggle with the visible property in js code, and you're done, until the next time (after you've made it invisible) when you try to get an instance for the control...go ahead try it.

var objTextBoxSave = document.getElementById({Client Id of Control});

..objTextBoxSave will be a null, because you made the control invisible, and therefore no HTML is generated by ASP.NET for this control.

I was banging my head against my screen, trying to do just this, and then realized it...

..so try this instead :

To make it invisible:
document.getElementById({Client Id of Control}).style.display = 'none';

To make it visible:
document.getElementById({Client Id of Control}).style.display = '';

..works like a charm.

Also, if you want to have the control initially invisible, set the style attribute in the code-behind to 'none' at Page_Load.
i.e. in C#
tbSaveAnalysisName.Style.Add("display","none");

Here's a forum I got all this off of.

Ajax, another acronym?

2006-08-19T15:18:00.000-07:00

I've done windows dev, and web dev, and I feel web dev is still in it's prehistoric pages, not that it has something to do with the tools being developed, but that the underlying plumbing of the internet is old and has limitations. Before I start bitching and moaning about how I love making deskop applications, I would rather tell you about Ajax. So I'm sitting at work trying to make this website which has a bunch of postbacks to the server (because I decide not to mess with javascript...BIG mistake). I'm sitting on the intranet, and I'm like, wow, I don't think anybody will notice the time lapse for the postbacks, and boom, I come across my sales guy who is totally pissed off since the demo was a complete embarrasment to him. The postbacks were taking too much time, and his client was not very happy. So I come back to the drawing board, what can I change....
Ajax...my saviour (so I'm hoping). Post only part of a page, and not the full page, how ingeneous, why did'nt anybody think of THAT before. Here's a link for 1.1 developers who want to ajax enable their webapps without much plumbing.
And for those of you who are lucky enough to have sold ASP.NET 2.0 to your management, and are developing using that, don't miss out on Scott Guthrie giving an 18 min demo on Atlas, Microsoft's version of Ajax.
Happy web programming...till they come out with a better way to make our jobs easier.

Love, Lust, and Money (in the reverse order!)

2006-05-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

I saw 'Match Point' today. Totally riveting! I am a sissy with movies, I remember I was the butt of my colleague's jokes when I walked out of a horror flick recently, because I did'nt see the point of watching it through my fingers covering my eyes.
Introspecting, I sometimes relate to the characters, and shy away from seeing what would happen when they get stuck in the mess they created for themselves (this introspection, of course does not apply to horror flicks!)
As I watched the movie, I so much wanted to leave, but was stuck in front of the screen, walking around, standing, trying my best to avoid seeing the ending, but forced by Woody Allen's talent. I don't think there are any directors these days who make movies like him. Every scene is well orchestrated, an example being the focus of the camera on a painting at a point when you are totally involved in the movie. Even if you are not an artist, the painting screams out the emotions of that scene. The opera music is enchanting, and haunting, totally in sync with every scene. It takes talent to see things as an audience sees it, and then make them into a movie. I'll be honest. I'm a sucker for Scarlet, and I got the movie mainly because of her, but ended up being inspired to see more movies like this.
Go rent the DVD, and enjoy an absolutely riveting experience.
And yes, I only forwarded part of the climax once (I'm such a sissy!)

Here's an excerpt from a review I really liked (by Roger Ebert):
"One reason for the fascination of Woddy Allen's "Match Point" is that each and every character is rotten. This is a thriller not about good versus evil, but about various species of evil engaged in a struggle for survival of the fittest -- or, as the movie makes clear, the luckiest. "I'd rather be lucky than good," Chris, the tennis pro from Ireland, tells us as the movie opens, and we see a tennis ball striking the net it is pure luck which side it falls on. Chris' own good fortune depends on just such a lucky toss of a coin."

Nissan Z

2006-04-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

I was in LA a few days back, interviewing for a position as a Systems Programmer. They treated me quite well, made me stay in a pretty good hotel, flew me first class (one way! I wonder why?).
The icing on the cake was the car I rented out. I walked into the Hertz rental counter and was totally surprised to see that Hertz was renting out the Nissan Z. For those of you unfamiliar with the Z, it's a 300 HP 2 seater sportscar, of which I had heard so much from one of my Australian colleagues, who claims to have pushed it to 140 on the Dallas Austin highway. I did'nt think much of sports cars like the Z, because it does not make sense to me to have a 2 seater car, might as well buy a bike (of course the risk of killing yourself quadruples).
So innocently, I went to the lady helping me, and asked..."out of curiosity, what category does the Z fall in?" She said "It depends on my mood...." So before I knew it, I was driving out of LAX Hertz in a brand spanking new white Z.
In Atlanta, my pal Pradyot took me to a go-cart racing place called Andretti's, and I had a blast driving one of those quick things. This was the nearest to go carting that you can get. The suspension is tight, and you can feel the road....literally. The seats are well designed to hold you in place as you are thrown about by the manouvers you try out on the little beast....and quite a beast it is! You can hear it growl as you stand at the lights, and attract a lot of curious looks, for obvious reasons. I felt so much in control as I steered the car around the curvy roads of Santa Monica hills, at over 60 mph (the limit was 35 ;) However, on a sligthly disappointing note, the interiors (other than the seats) feel plasticky. I wish they had given me a manual gearshift, but the tiptronic did the job quite well. Luggage space is pretty tight, because of a horizontal bar running across the top in the luggage area. I was pretty un impressed when even my over nighter was having a tough time fitting underneath the thing. Later I found out that it connects the 2 rear suspensions together to give a stiffer handling.
Trust me, if you like revving up engines while you drive, this is the car for you. It is totally driver centric. Not too many distractions to keep you away from enjoying the road. However do opt for a moonroof if you end up buying this thing. Nissan's done a great job at the Z, and I've heard that they are coming out with the GT under the Nissan label. Now I'll have to get lucky at Hertz again before writing a review for that one a few years from now!

Data Structures

2006-03-17T09:24:00.000-08:00

What I've been reading:
An extensive study of data structures, by Scott Mitchell, from 4 Guys From Rolla. This guy can really write! There are six parts, and he keeps on updating them. This link takes u to the first one.

Stored procs (any DB)

2006-02-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

Recently I encountered a problem where in I was trying to create the query for insertion/updation of a table in the code. BAD idea. Use stored procs instead. Why?
1. Seems like a stored proc is compiled the first time you execute it, and stored in the database. Accessing it again does not require recompilation, unless you have used the keyword 'RECOMPILE' in the SQL for creation of the sp
2. SQL Server 2005, along with most other dbs stores an execution plan for the Stored proc once it is compiled, in something called the procedure table. Meaning that every time you access the sp again, it already knows how to execute it in the best possible way. However this is also true for large batch queries, provided you don't change the input too much.

Now for the 2 problems I encountered:
1. How to write an INSERTION query:

Thumb rule 1: always return an error code
Thumb rule 2: use output parameters where necessary
eg.

set ANSI_NULLS ON
set QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
go

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ins_VendorInfo]
-- following param has no default value, means it has to be provided from code
@Name varchar(100),
-- these have default values set to null, in case we don't provide anything
@Address1 varchar(200) = null,
@Address2 varchar(200) = null,
@VendorID_Output int OUTPUT

AS
BEGIN
-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
-- interfering with SELECT statements.
SET NOCOUNT ON;

-- this will work only if the params are in the exact order of stuff in table, otherwise specify -- order of columns after VendorInfoTable in braces
INSERT INTO VendorInfoTable
VALUES (
@Name,
@Address1,
@Address2,

SELECT @VendorID_Output = @@IDENTITY

RETURN @@ERROR
END

2. How to write an UPDATION query:
Pretty genuine problem i had. Update only if stuff is not passed as param, for example if I pass null into @Name param, don't change the field in the table. Instead use the existing value. ISNULL function does the job. See below.

eg.

set ANSI_NULLS ON
set QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
go

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[upd_VendorInfo]
@psID int,
@Name varchar(100) = null,
@Address1 varchar(200) = null,
@Address2 varchar(200) = null,

AS
BEGIN
-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
-- interfering with SELECT statements.
SET NOCOUNT ON;

UPDATE VendorInfoTable
SET
--ISNULL makes sure if the param is null, it will use the value of the existing field
PSName = ISNULL(@Name, PSName),
PSAddress1 = ISNULL(@Address1, PSAddress1),
PSAddress2 = ISNULL(@Address2, PSAddress2),
WHERE
VendorID = @psID

RETURN @@ERROR
END

3. How to put in transactions. Here's a general snippet

BEGIN TRAN
INSERT mytable VALUES('myvalue')
IF @@ERROR <> 0
ROLLBACK TRAN
ELSE
COMMIT TRAN

You can also check how many rows have been inserted via a condition like
IF @@ROWCOUNT >0

Hope this helps somebody out there!

Peace!

Christmas spirit

2005-12-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

I saw the commercial of Miller Lite at work today, and found it to be amazing. It turns out that this is something created by an Electrical Engineer in Ohio!!

Click here to see it...

See it with the music....simply amazing. There's so much talent in people!

ASP.NET 2.0 Blog: HyperLink Column in Grid View

2005-12-15T11:46:00.001-08:00

ASP.NET 2.0 Blog: HyperLink Column in Grid View

Finally! - some competition to ipod

2005-10-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

ipod is everywhere...but what about other players. I came across iRiver's new U10 player. Play the flash demo to see what it's capable of. I absolutely adore it. It sums up everything I need for my everyday life, an alarm clock, an mp3 player, a video player, a voice recorder, an fm player. I loved the interface. If only they would bump up the storage, I can bet money this will beat the ipod hands down. Also, try this link for CNET's review - u'll be amazed at the size of this thing.

Amazing!

Travel buffs

2005-10-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

I admit it...I am a travel buff....I plan every trip to the last minute detail, searching for the best deals, but as my buddies will tell u, i always end up spending more than necessary for a trip. Found a really cool site called Yahoo Farechase, pretty neat. Here are links to some others that I highly recommend.
1. Smarter Travel (sign up for their weekly newsletter with your preferred departure airport, and get last minute deals) I always travel on these deals.
2. Yahoo Farechase (scroll down in this blog and u'll see the search on the left)
3. kayak
4. Qixo
5. American esp. good for DFW departures and flights to/from DFW
6. Travelot
7. Hotwire
8. Student Universe ...makes me wanna be a student again, for the kick ass deals

Completely new Office

2005-09-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

It's no joke, MS Office has become an integral part of everybody who works for anybody. (I personally know of people who would be without jobs if it was'nt for Microsoft Excel). Mainly of the easy interface and a line of products that target every need you will ever have in a work environment. PDC (Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference), which usually involves showcasing of what is to come from the Software giant in the coming months. Here are sc's of the latest, Office 12, and Windows Vista.

Search Humor

2005-09-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

Try this out - go to google, search for 'failure' and click on the first link. I'm sure some smartass did this on purpose!

Apple News

2005-09-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hot off the news - took a look at the new IPod Nano, pretty slick. I'm slightly depressed - I'm the proud owner of an IPod Mini, which will now be discontinued. Apple also introduced an IPod phone today. Somehow I did'nt like their design. They could have atleast let Motorola borrow the Click-wheel.

New Honda Civic

2005-09-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

Was reading about the new Honda Civic. With what gas prices are these days, I think this might be the best bet for us. Seems like the sporty version comes with GPS and all. So what if it's a desi car (U know what I mean!) Try this link. I wonder what the hybrid will be priced like.

Alien in your own country

2005-09-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

I have been doing software contracting since the beginning of my career. Learnt a lot from it, networked a lot, and bacame much more shrewd in terms of the dirty part of the industry. I always used to think what it would feel like for an American working in the fishmarket this industry has become. I used to have a DBA (very talented in SQL Server and OLAP) who used to work with me in my first project. He always used to separate himself from the crowd. Initially I thought maybe he was racist, but with time I realized that it was not him who had separated himself out, it was the others who had done that to him. He was an outcast in his own country, because of the color of his skin. Amazing reality, especially in a field which gets the most talented thinkers and problem solvers.
Off late, I moved to another client in Dallas, and left my old one. The move happened at a good time, fate, destiny, whatever you might want to call it, because my old client started laying off like crazy a few weeks after I left. I was contacted by 3 people yesterday, with their resume's. I was stunned. These are people who worked 65-80 hour weeks when they were paid for only 40, gave it their best, only to find out that now they are going to be disposed, because the projects were moving to another country. Being from that country is always a benefit, because you always have a fall back plan that you can move back, but what would happen to the talented American Software Engineer who worked his ass off in college, only to find out that he would now have to move to another country to do what he loved doing!
Two of these guys were on their H1 B visas, and the company has given them a notice that it will cancel their H1 within 1 month.
I feel lucky I'm not one of them, atleast till now, but I embrace the reality that it will be me in their shoes not long from now, if I slip in playing my cards right, and lose the cautiousness that has helped me survive till now. It's literally a jungle, survival at it's best.

2005-08-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

I hate Mondays, esp in the morning when I'm sipping my cup of tea in the morning, thinking about the work I will be loaded with. Had to correct the code I have been writing to save the state of forms (I cannot believe .NET does'nt allow an easier way to do it) . If this is all greek to you, don't sweat, I'm just grumbling. Was handed a project proposal by my company, to figure out how much resources will be needed to finish up a software that a client wants to get made so that they can be lazier than they already are. Never done that in my life, so I guess I'll sit down, and make wild guesses, and make them look pretty on an excel sheet.
Oh well.......Monday

The making of my blog

2005-08-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

Read a book on publishing a blog using Blogger in B&N yesterday. Pretty cool, started trying it myself.