Yesterday was my last day in my office, where I had worked for nearly 4 years. My tenure there was just like how that Mastercard ad of some time ago went: times that were more better than worse. And thankfully, it was an amicable split (in fact, I had been reading many "How To Handle A Breakup" stories on the Web of late): it was just a case of time to move on.
By a strange and unfortunate stroke of misfortune, I was not well on this last day and was extremely tired throughout. This had to do with my eggscapade of Sunday of course, had caught a bug or a curse on that caper. A major reason for my quit was the realization that there were too many eggs in the fridge of my life - stacks of unread magazines, unexpanded ideas, and many other undone things! But I do hope that this creative-exploration reasoning for my quit holds water when I'm ready to find another job!
I struggled to complete my exit formalities because of exhaustion and was forced to spend most of the day resting at my desk. Hence I was not able to bid cheerful enough adieus to people who came there to my desk and probably decided not to trouble me too much. Guys, it was just that I was ill and exhausted, not sick and tired! :)
PS Yeah, this is the explanation for the recent, increased blogging activity.
Showing posts with label Kicks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kicks. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Anti Patterns
Labels:
Kicks
Had a blast with this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-pattern
Presenting an abridged, non-technical version here, because links also die sometimes.
Check out the definitions for mushroom management!
Organizational anti-patterns
* Analysis paralysis: Devoting disproportionate effort to the analysis phase of a project
* Cash cow: A profitable legacy product that often leads to complacency about new products
* Design by committee: The result of having many contributors to a design, but no unifying vision
* Escalation of commitment: Failing to revoke a decision when it proves wrong
* Management by perkele: Authoritarian style of management with no tolerance for dissent
* Moral hazard: Insulating a decision-maker from the consequences of his or her decision.
* Mushroom management: Keeping employees uninformed and misinformed (kept in the dark and fed manure)
* Stovepipe: A structure that supports mostly up-down flow of data but inhibits cross organizational communication
* Vendor lock-in: Making a system excessively dependent on an externally supplied component
Project management antipatterns
* Death march: Everyone knows that the project is going to be a disaster – except the CEO. However, the truth remains hidden and the project is artificially kept alive until the Day Zero finally comes ("Big Bang"). Alternative definition: Employees are pressured to work late nights and weekends on a project with an unreasonable deadline.
* Groupthink: During groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking.
* Smoke and mirrors: Demonstrating how unimplemented functions will appear
* Software bloat: Allowing successive versions of a system to demand ever more resources
Analysis anti-patterns
* Bystander apathy: When a requirement or design decision is wrong, but the people who notice this do nothing because it affects a larger number of people.
Software design anti-patterns
* Gold plating: Continuing to work on a task or project well past the point at which extra effort is adding value
*
Programming anti-patterns
* Accidental complexity: Introducing unnecessary complexity into a solution
* Boat anchor: Retaining a part of a system that no longer has any use
* Cargo cult programming: Using patterns and methods without understanding why
* Coding by exception: Adding new code to handle each special case as it is recognized
* Error hiding: Catching an error message before it can be shown to the user and either showing nothing or showing a meaningless message
* Lava flow: Retaining undesirable (redundant or low-quality) code because removing it is too expensive or has unpredictable consequences
Methodological anti-patterns
* Golden hammer: Assuming that a favorite solution is universally applicable
* Improbability factor: Assuming that it is improbable that a known error will occur
* Premature optimization: Coding early-on for perceived efficiency, sacrificing good design, maintainability, and sometimes even real-world efficiency
* Programming by permutation (or "programming by accident"): Trying to approach a solution by successively modifying the code to see if it works
* Reinventing the wheel: Failing to adopt an existing, adequate solution
* Silver bullet: Assuming that a favorite technical solution can solve a larger process or problem
Presenting an abridged, non-technical version here, because links also die sometimes.
Check out the definitions for mushroom management!
Organizational anti-patterns
* Analysis paralysis: Devoting disproportionate effort to the analysis phase of a project
* Cash cow: A profitable legacy product that often leads to complacency about new products
* Design by committee: The result of having many contributors to a design, but no unifying vision
* Escalation of commitment: Failing to revoke a decision when it proves wrong
* Management by perkele: Authoritarian style of management with no tolerance for dissent
* Moral hazard: Insulating a decision-maker from the consequences of his or her decision.
* Mushroom management: Keeping employees uninformed and misinformed (kept in the dark and fed manure)
* Stovepipe: A structure that supports mostly up-down flow of data but inhibits cross organizational communication
* Vendor lock-in: Making a system excessively dependent on an externally supplied component
Project management antipatterns
* Death march: Everyone knows that the project is going to be a disaster – except the CEO. However, the truth remains hidden and the project is artificially kept alive until the Day Zero finally comes ("Big Bang"). Alternative definition: Employees are pressured to work late nights and weekends on a project with an unreasonable deadline.
* Groupthink: During groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking.
* Smoke and mirrors: Demonstrating how unimplemented functions will appear
* Software bloat: Allowing successive versions of a system to demand ever more resources
Analysis anti-patterns
* Bystander apathy: When a requirement or design decision is wrong, but the people who notice this do nothing because it affects a larger number of people.
Software design anti-patterns
* Gold plating: Continuing to work on a task or project well past the point at which extra effort is adding value
*
Programming anti-patterns
* Accidental complexity: Introducing unnecessary complexity into a solution
* Boat anchor: Retaining a part of a system that no longer has any use
* Cargo cult programming: Using patterns and methods without understanding why
* Coding by exception: Adding new code to handle each special case as it is recognized
* Error hiding: Catching an error message before it can be shown to the user and either showing nothing or showing a meaningless message
* Lava flow: Retaining undesirable (redundant or low-quality) code because removing it is too expensive or has unpredictable consequences
Methodological anti-patterns
* Golden hammer: Assuming that a favorite solution is universally applicable
* Improbability factor: Assuming that it is improbable that a known error will occur
* Premature optimization: Coding early-on for perceived efficiency, sacrificing good design, maintainability, and sometimes even real-world efficiency
* Programming by permutation (or "programming by accident"): Trying to approach a solution by successively modifying the code to see if it works
* Reinventing the wheel: Failing to adopt an existing, adequate solution
* Silver bullet: Assuming that a favorite technical solution can solve a larger process or problem
Monday, May 18, 2009
Banana Endianness
Labels:
Kicks,
Literary?,
Observation
Endianness In General
----------------------------
Lilliput and Blefuscu, the two fictional island nations in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, were at war with each other over the issue of the correct way to eat a boiled egg. The Lilliputians said that it should be eaten from the little (sharper) end, while the Blefuscans claimed that it should be the big (rounder) end!
Though intended as satire by the author, there are dubious merits and demerits for each approach if the issue is meditated upon, especially if the egg is a half-boiled one.
Little End Of Egg
Merit: Rests on a stable base
DeMerit: Hard to insert spoon
Big End Of Egg -
Merit: Easier to insert spoon
DeMerit: Could topple more easily - spillage
There ain't no such as a trivial thing! Everything has a purpose and there is a reason why things are the way they are. The issue is even paid homage to in the field of computers - there are such things as Little Endian and Big Endian computers!!! *** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness
Bananas - End To End!
----------------------------------------
A similar question, perhaps one with more tropical relevance, is - at which end should you peel a banana from?
There are two ends for a banana, when it is removed from a bunch - the end with the stalk and the end with the blackish button (don't know the word for the whatchamacallit, the buttonish thingy).
I had always peeled a banana from the buttony end. But then somebody pointed out that he found it unusual that one could choose to do it this way. I asked around and found out, to my surprise and shock, that many (most? ) peel from the stalky end!
Rationale unbuttoned
----------------------------------
It made perfect sense to me, peeling from the buttony end. The button was, in my book and practice, the logical peel-point; what else could it have been meant for? The button was, for unbuttoning! It was as clear as a "Tear here" marking for me.
What's more, if you did it this way, you could use the stalk to hold the banana while you ate it. logical, to do it this way! In fact, the longer the banana, the longer you need to hold it and the more logical this methodology is.
Justifying the Stalkers
-----------------------------------
But there is no rhyme without reason, is there? There had to be an explanation why so many practitioners of the Other Way existed. You've got to put yourself in the other guy's shoes, and find out why and how they fit him fine...
Peeling the banana from stalky end is also not without sense, when I thought about it further. Especially if the banana is of the shorter (plantain) kind. What happens is that when these short bananas are removed from the bunch, they break off at the base of the stalk, at the start of the fleshy part. So, when thus removed, the banana is already open; the proto-peels , they don't have to be created, unlike in the unbutton-methodology. So, the Stalker just has to extend those peels, pulling each one. Perfectly natural!
The Stalker methodology can used to advantage with longer bananas as well. The stalk can be used effectively as a peeler. Peeling with the stalk, there's no confusion: just pull tangentially to the curve of the banana, with the unbuttoning style, you need to take a decision as to which direction to peel!
Also, I observed that many of the Stalkers, with shorter bananas, used the button to pop the banana into their mouths. Press button to eject and ingest, was their operative motto. Buttons are to press?
Another point in favor of the Stalker methodology, with longer bananas, is that you can use the stalk to lock and protect the banana just in case you need to pause and resume your banana-session later! Tennis-players do this in between games.
Stalker Hegemony
----------------------------------
The world (mine at least) seems to be full of Stalkers! In the two years since the question was popped (Banana Endianness TBD) at me, I have braved many "What the #%*#" stares and worse for surveying people's banana-eating techniques, but have still not come across a natural Unbuttoner! Existential doubts have sprung up within me... Lilliput 1 - Blefuscu 0?
- Thomas Jay Cubb
----------------------------
Lilliput and Blefuscu, the two fictional island nations in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, were at war with each other over the issue of the correct way to eat a boiled egg. The Lilliputians said that it should be eaten from the little (sharper) end, while the Blefuscans claimed that it should be the big (rounder) end!
Though intended as satire by the author, there are dubious merits and demerits for each approach if the issue is meditated upon, especially if the egg is a half-boiled one.
Little End Of Egg
Merit: Rests on a stable base
DeMerit: Hard to insert spoon
Big End Of Egg -
Merit: Easier to insert spoon
DeMerit: Could topple more easily - spillage
There ain't no such as a trivial thing! Everything has a purpose and there is a reason why things are the way they are. The issue is even paid homage to in the field of computers - there are such things as Little Endian and Big Endian computers!!! *** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness
Bananas - End To End!
----------------------------------------
A similar question, perhaps one with more tropical relevance, is - at which end should you peel a banana from?
There are two ends for a banana, when it is removed from a bunch - the end with the stalk and the end with the blackish button (don't know the word for the whatchamacallit, the buttonish thingy).
I had always peeled a banana from the buttony end. But then somebody pointed out that he found it unusual that one could choose to do it this way. I asked around and found out, to my surprise and shock, that many (most? ) peel from the stalky end!
Rationale unbuttoned
----------------------------------
It made perfect sense to me, peeling from the buttony end. The button was, in my book and practice, the logical peel-point; what else could it have been meant for? The button was, for unbuttoning! It was as clear as a "Tear here" marking for me.
What's more, if you did it this way, you could use the stalk to hold the banana while you ate it. logical, to do it this way! In fact, the longer the banana, the longer you need to hold it and the more logical this methodology is.
Justifying the Stalkers
-----------------------------------
But there is no rhyme without reason, is there? There had to be an explanation why so many practitioners of the Other Way existed. You've got to put yourself in the other guy's shoes, and find out why and how they fit him fine...
Peeling the banana from stalky end is also not without sense, when I thought about it further. Especially if the banana is of the shorter (plantain) kind. What happens is that when these short bananas are removed from the bunch, they break off at the base of the stalk, at the start of the fleshy part. So, when thus removed, the banana is already open; the proto-peels , they don't have to be created, unlike in the unbutton-methodology. So, the Stalker just has to extend those peels, pulling each one. Perfectly natural!
The Stalker methodology can used to advantage with longer bananas as well. The stalk can be used effectively as a peeler. Peeling with the stalk, there's no confusion: just pull tangentially to the curve of the banana, with the unbuttoning style, you need to take a decision as to which direction to peel!
Also, I observed that many of the Stalkers, with shorter bananas, used the button to pop the banana into their mouths. Press button to eject and ingest, was their operative motto. Buttons are to press?
Another point in favor of the Stalker methodology, with longer bananas, is that you can use the stalk to lock and protect the banana just in case you need to pause and resume your banana-session later! Tennis-players do this in between games.
Stalker Hegemony
----------------------------------
The world (mine at least) seems to be full of Stalkers! In the two years since the question was popped (Banana Endianness TBD) at me, I have braved many "What the #%*#" stares and worse for surveying people's banana-eating techniques, but have still not come across a natural Unbuttoner! Existential doubts have sprung up within me... Lilliput 1 - Blefuscu 0?
- Thomas Jay Cubb
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Proof By Quotation
"A witty saying proves nothing."
- Voltaire
"Bullshit! Witty sayings are the very essence of wisdom, and I should know."
- Oscar Wilde
"People will take anything you say seriously if you put a famous name next to it."
- Albert Einstein
-From a discussion on Slashdot
- Voltaire
"Bullshit! Witty sayings are the very essence of wisdom, and I should know."
- Oscar Wilde
"People will take anything you say seriously if you put a famous name next to it."
- Albert Einstein
-From a discussion on Slashdot
Monday, January 15, 2007
Ego Was
Labels:
Kicks
(From my earlier ego blurb!)
Thomas who? Thomas Jay Cubb. Programmer, writer, composer, poet, quizzer. Welcome to the Cubb!
Fame needs a name! - TJC
What's my name, again? Unlucky not to have been blessed with a particularly distinctive given name, but desperately craving fame, my jumbo ego would not let me choose anything but a homophonic pseudonym.
So it became a Jay for a J and a "Jay Cubb" for a Jacob! Thomas Jay Cubb. Now, what would you call that? A semipseudonym? A crudonym? Homophonodonym? Or just "nym", perhaps?
Expect nothing, and you will have no reason to be disappointed. - TJC
Try "Thomas Jay Cubb" in Google!!! I'm an inveterate ego-surfer. But so far, I've had to make my own web-waves to surf. :-(
Thomas who? Thomas Jay Cubb. Programmer, writer, composer, poet, quizzer. Welcome to the Cubb!
Fame needs a name! - TJC
What's my name, again? Unlucky not to have been blessed with a particularly distinctive given name, but desperately craving fame, my jumbo ego would not let me choose anything but a homophonic pseudonym.
So it became a Jay for a J and a "Jay Cubb" for a Jacob! Thomas Jay Cubb. Now, what would you call that? A semipseudonym? A crudonym? Homophonodonym? Or just "nym", perhaps?
Expect nothing, and you will have no reason to be disappointed. - TJC
Try "Thomas Jay Cubb" in Google!!! I'm an inveterate ego-surfer. But so far, I've had to make my own web-waves to surf. :-(
Friday, February 03, 2006
Friday, November 11, 2005
Surprisingly SBI
Labels:
Kicks
There are a lot of ads doing the round asking different questions, all of them with the same answer: Surprisingly SBI.
Which bank has the most ATMS?
Which bank gives you ......... ... the best X?
...
...
Surprisingly SBI.
Why should it be surprising? Why do they have such low self-esteem? Didn't the ad agency think about that?
Does SBI expand to Surprising Bank of India? :-)
Which bank has the most ATMS?
Which bank gives you .....
...
...
Surprisingly SBI.
Why should it be surprising? Why do they have such low self-esteem? Didn't the ad agency think about that?
Does SBI expand to Surprising Bank of India? :-)
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Dullest Headline?
Labels:
Kicks
Came across this while browsing the web.
Claude Cockburn's famous candidate in the competition among Times sub-editors for the year's dullest headline:
"Small Earthquake in Chile: Not Many Dead."
Claude Cockburn's famous candidate in the competition among Times sub-editors for the year's dullest headline:
"Small Earthquake in Chile: Not Many Dead."
Friday, September 16, 2005
Song For The Quinquennium
I reproduce here my submission to My Favorite Word.
Quinquennium. Not too many words start with a 'q', and this one has two 'q's! Really like the way it sounds too.
-------------------------
SONG FOR THE QUINQUENNIUM
-------------------------
English's list of Q-words:
Not many in queue.
I searched "five years"!
At last found a good one
not just starting with Q
but which in fact had two!
I just love it, won't you too?
Please do take my cue.
-Thomas Jay Cubb
http://incubbator.blogspot.com
I wonder why this word is not more in vogue; a quinquennium is a more practical measure to track your life with than a decade is, come to think of it...
-------------------------------------------
This became, very soon, the first version of "About A Word" (final version at CubbSpace)
This is a poem about the word quiniquennium which means "five years", it is in fact my favourite word. somebody had asked me yesterday, so that's where the inspiration comes from all of a sudden..
it's very very experimental.has its rough edges, so let me know what you think... so that i can finalize... .
luv
thomas
ABOUT A WORD
--------------------------
English words starting with 'Q'
Are, queerly, a quite quiescent few.
Query anyone, "Not many in queue".
A quixotic five-year lexical quest (quite untrue)
And I found the word most q-true-blue!
Half a decade, it's my favourite
(The word's quinquennium)
Say it aloud, savour it
Ain't it cute, sounds so.. yum-yum?
No question, better than all the rest of'em.
For not only does it start with a 'Q',
It has one to spare too: two!
-Thomas Jay Cubb
(September 15, 2005)
Quinquennium. Not too many words start with a 'q', and this one has two 'q's! Really like the way it sounds too.
-------------------------
SONG FOR THE QUINQUENNIUM
-------------------------
English's list of Q-words:
Not many in queue.
I searched "five years"!
At last found a good one
not just starting with Q
but which in fact had two!
I just love it, won't you too?
Please do take my cue.
-Thomas Jay Cubb
http://incubbator.blogspot.com
I wonder why this word is not more in vogue; a quinquennium is a more practical measure to track your life with than a decade is, come to think of it...
-------------------------------------------
This became, very soon, the first version of "About A Word" (final version at CubbSpace)
This is a poem about the word quiniquennium which means "five years", it is in fact my favourite word. somebody had asked me yesterday, so that's where the inspiration comes from all of a sudden..
it's very very experimental.has its rough edges, so let me know what you think... so that i can finalize... .
luv
thomas
ABOUT A WORD
--------------------------
English words starting with 'Q'
Are, queerly, a quite quiescent few.
Query anyone, "Not many in queue".
A quixotic five-year lexical quest (quite untrue)
And I found the word most q-true-blue!
Half a decade, it's my favourite
(The word's quinquennium)
Say it aloud, savour it
Ain't it cute, sounds so.. yum-yum?
No question, better than all the rest of'em.
For not only does it start with a 'Q',
It has one to spare too: two!
-Thomas Jay Cubb
(September 15, 2005)
Thursday, September 15, 2005
FloccinAUSSIEnihilipilification
Labels:
Kicks
The recently concluded Ashes series saw the floccinaucinihilipilification of the Australian batting order by the English pace bowlers. There! I have used the word! In context!!!
Wonder why nobody else came up with that line... The word was just begging to be used, with even the "Aussie" bit in it!
Ashes 2005: Floccinaussienihilipilification would pretty much describe the series in one word, wouldn't it? For the record... :-)
Floccinaucinihilipilification is the longest non-technical word in the dictionary.
Wonder why nobody else came up with that line... The word was just begging to be used, with even the "Aussie" bit in it!
Ashes 2005: Floccinaussienihilipilification would pretty much describe the series in one word, wouldn't it? For the record... :-)
Floccinaucinihilipilification is the longest non-technical word in the dictionary.
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