Avinash Atreya's Journal

Today's twitter updates

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:30:38 GMT

10:28 has read Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids... by Robert T. Kiyosaki - bit.ly/KJNib #
10:28 has read The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford - bit.ly/mxLpI #
10:28 is reading The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbabl... by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - bit.ly/85Cm2 #
10:30 is reading Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden... by Steven D Levitt, Stephen J Du... - bit.ly/1Peksj #

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Today's twitter updates

Sun, 24 May 2009 18:30:41 GMT

20:34 Symonds looks dangerous, Dravid will be hurting. #ipl #
20:45 First ten overs clearly belong to Bangalore. #ipl #ipfinal #

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Today's twitter updates

Fri, 22 May 2009 18:31:02 GMT

21:08 Beware of facebook phishing attacks such as whitemart.be, sweeter.be, areps.at. DON'T CLICK. Please RT. #

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Today's twitter updates

Thu, 21 May 2009 18:31:03 GMT

20:50 Manish Pandey looks a decent young bat. Was surprised to find out he actually plays for Karnataka! #ipl #
21:29 Pandey gets to a 100, and SET Max konks off! How lame! #ipl #
22:30 Mr. Rameez Raja, I'm sorry. You're not witty. And you try too hard. #ipl #

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Today's twitter updates

Tue, 19 May 2009 18:31:02 GMT

22:50 Dravid's last few dismissals have been great illustrations of 'caught in two minds'. #ipl #
23:26 It's amazing how each one of the last few games has gone according to script to make it a real close run for Semi Final spots #ipl #

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Today's twitter updates

Sat, 16 May 2009 18:30:38 GMT

10:48 If the UPA can form a government on their own, without the Left and the SP, there is hope that this government will be a lot better. #
10:50 Impressive: RT @m_mekin Karnataka results here karnatakaelections2009.gov.in/. #
11:01 Very refreshing to see Shashi Tharoor on NDTV. I hope Tharoor as foreign affairs minister isn't just a whim. #
11:13 Many performing but long term incumbent CMs doing remarkably well: Modi, Shiela Dixit, Nitish, SS Chauhan, Patnaik... #
11:19 Major spoilers this time: Raj Thackeray, Vijay Kanth and Chiranjeevi. Chiru in fact has been more than just a spoiler. #
11:24 Biggest winners: TMC & Mamata in WB, Cong in UP,Rajasthan and Kerala, Chiru in AP #
11:25 Surprisingly holding on: DMK in TN, Patnaik in Orissa, Cong and NCP in Maharashtra #
11:26 Biggest losers: Left in WB & Kerala, Lalu and Paswan in Bihar, Akalis in Punjab. #
11:28 Opportunist losers: PMK and brigade in TN, TRS in Andhra. #
11:30 Heavy weights trailing: Mani Shankar Aiyar, Chidambaram, Jaswant Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi.... #
11:31 #indiavotes09 is now a trending topic and I just forgot to tag so many tweets with that! #
12:11 If Rajnath is still wondering why Kar and Mah let BJP down. I've one letter for him: 'M'. M for Malegaon & M for Mutalik. #indiavotes09. #
12:15 @shettyb With less than 5 seats, Cong has no obligation to include Lalu and Paswan in the government. #
12:24 Cong, NCP & TMC is basically the Cong(I) of old - 225 in all -- very close to the 1991 number, I guess. #indiavotes09 #
12:31 @shettyb You are right in a way, but these issues have a larger impact on the image of the party. They are not so localized. #indiavotes09 #
12:32 BJP also close to 1991 number, like Cong. I hope an Ayodhya is not in order! #indiavotes09. #
13:27 In WB, Kerala, AP, TN - places were Cong has gained mainly, BJP has virtually no presence. And that's nearly 150 seats. #indiavotes09 #
15:21 This quite clearly is a vote against the third, fourth and the sundry fronts. #indiavotes09 #
15:24 BJP's major lacunae: young leadership, strong issues, national presence. They have some hard choices to make. #indiavotes09. #
15:32 @shettyb Renuka has been quite a loose canon. News is just in that she lost. #indiavotes09. #
15:39 Does anyone have confirmed news about Chidambaram? #indiavotes09. #
15:45 @shettyb I heard there was a recounting ordered after the results were first announced around 1:30. #
15:51 Most of congress' young turks have done well. Hope to see a much younger cabinet. Helps that Arjun and Natwar aren't around. #indiavotes09 #
16:06 RT @nnachi sivaganga recounting. last status is chidambaram leading by 2k votes. #
16:08 Mukul Kesavan and Vir Sanghvi have been awesome as panelists. Prize catches by NDTV. #indiavotes09 #
16:25 BJP is a trending topic. What?! #indiavotes09 #
16:27 @kadambariyer Heh. She might, if you are insinuating Barkha being calm and quiet is a threat to national security. #
16:29 RT @jyothirmayee #indiavotes09 Wow in just 2 minutes Congress replaced BJP in the top 10 trending topics! I wonder what is happening. #
16:32 If Dr Singh completes a full term, he'll be the first since Nehru to do so. #indiavotes09 #

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Today's twitter updates

Wed, 13 May 2009 18:31:00 GMT

12:25 In between bowling out RR for the lowest total, and the highest successful run chase against KKR, RC have been all over the place. #

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Today's twitter updates

Tue, 12 May 2009 18:30:45 GMT

19:27 Taylor you beauty!!!! Best innings of this IPL for me. Go RCB go! #ipl #

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Today's twitter updates

Fri, 08 May 2009 18:30:39 GMT

15:10 @raodyboy 'software engineer' Arjun Rao? :P #

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Today's twitter updates

Thu, 07 May 2009 18:32:04 GMT

11:30 What's the rationale in allowing someone to contest from more than one constituency? Beats me. #

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Today's twitter updates

Wed, 06 May 2009 18:30:59 GMT

23:11 Who wants a hat trick next? Part timers put your hands up? #ipl #

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Today's twitter updates

Tue, 05 May 2009 18:31:12 GMT

16:57 Naman Ojha looks like an inspired selection for RR. #ipl. #
17:19 Has SG got out that 'cricket is a great leveler comment yet'? Abdullah might end up bowling one of the most expensive spells. #ipl #

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Today's twitter updates

Sun, 03 May 2009 18:30:41 GMT

20:27 For the life of me, I can't figure why RCB won't drop a tired and under-performing Kallis. #ipl. You could even 'rest' him, you know? #
20:45 Dillon Du Perez, where were you all these days! #
22:37 Best powerplay overs with both bat and ball for RCB. Is it their night? #ipl #
22:38 OK, i'll eat my words, er, at least half of then. Drop Kallis the bowler :P #
22:38 Robin Uthappa #fail #
22:42 @sunsonian It was nice knowing you. :P #
23:19 Time to eat my words again tonight, Uthappa finally showing some form! #ipl #

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Today's twitter updates

Fri, 01 May 2009 18:30:53 GMT

17:15 @sidharth Yep, I have been hearing nice things about Scala for a while. While give it a spin. #
17:16 I am not a big fan of this pinch hitting experiment with Bhajji. Beats me #ipl. #
17:56 OH Ranjt Fernando: Zaheer has been so consistent he had to be rewarded. For a full wide one that was almost a wide? #ipl #
23:12 Death bowling is the weakest link for RCB. It was exposed badly last time against KXIP. Will it be an encore, or is there a hero? #ipl #
23:31 What an over from Kumble! But who is going to bowl the last over now! #ipl #
23:37 Praveen Kumar is the man! Go RCB #ipl #

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Today's twitter updates

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:31:09 GMT

20:44 Yet another reason #java sucks. No support for tuples! Lame I say! #tech #
22:25 I sometimes still miss #C++ templates. Somehow don't have the same feel for #java generics. #
23:22 Once CSK have wrapped this up, it should be a very very interesting points table! No one's quite in or out yet! #ipl #
23:49 Chrysler files for bankruptcy! #

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Today's twitter updates

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:31:09 GMT

12:20 @raodyboy Yeah, that's a close call. If Uthappa manages to have a decent outing for the rest of the IPL, he could be a choice too! #
12:22 @balusmbox Ojha is in the 16, not sure he'll make the 11 ahead of Bhajji.The batting line up selects itself. Ifran is in as an all rounder. #
12:23 @shreeni I'm an Irfran too. Hope he stops trying to swing it the other way and sticks to what he can do well. #
14:35 BCCI grants 'amnesty' to ICL players bit.ly/113iJx. Good move considering the thin bench strength on show in the #ipl. #cricket #
14:38 @raodyboy @m_mekin I agree. Ditto with Dravid. I'd dearly love to see one last salvo from both of them, but that is indeed getting greedy! #

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Today's twitter updates

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:31:02 GMT

22:20 Makes me wonder, if Kaif so much worse compared to Velthaty (is that how you spell it?), that you'd send him home without a game? #ipl #
22:58 I'm a big fan of this yousuf pathan, i really am! He's the hardest hitter India has had for a while now! #ipl #
23:01 The all around abilities of the Pathan brothers is really going to be crucial to India's success in the coming years, and 2011 world cup #
23:13 The game is RR's to lose now. Ideal situation. Well set Smith, and Pathan on fire! #
23:17 What a great example of performing one's 'role': Smith 43 off 43, Pathan 43 off 23! #ipl #
23:37 Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvi, Rohit, Raina, Yousuf, Dhoni, Irfan, Bhajji, Zaheer, Ishant - my pick for India's T20 11. Strong or what! #cricket #
23:40 RP, Munaf, Ojha, Nayyar, Karthik would complete the 16. #cricket #

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Chimerical demand forecasts and the Indian IT Industry

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:36:16 GMT

Ever heard chimerical demand forecasts like demand for some not-so-great product X will exceed <insert large number> by <year in the near future>? They oft sound very impressive, and sound like you should be queuing up to produce X. It sounds counter-intuitive, but sometimes, the sensible thing to do would be to stop producing X. To cut a long story short, given that X is indeed a not-so-great product, and there is so much demand for it, someone will figure out X' -- which does what X does, but better. If you keep producing X in the hope of selling it, that's a sure shot way of running out of business.

Like someone predicted in the 80's that demand for key punch operators would exceed 100 million by 2010. Is the Indian IT professional the new key punch operator of the 80's?

Okay, I wasn't even born then and I lifted that example straight from one of Joel's essays, but here is a more recent, first hand example. Back when I was in college in 2003, the demand for STD calls was soaring. We had only a handful of STD booths in college, and come night time, all of them were courted by a long lines of suitors. I am not sure if our friendly neighborhood STD operators got a demand forecast done -- they probably thought it was common sense -- they decided to double the number of STD booths overnight. Sure enough, in a matter of few months, they rued their decision to do so. What was going on?

The mobile revolution was gaining strength in India. The long lines had to do with falling call rates. But, falling call rates themselves had to do with the fact that mobile communication was becoming cheaper. Soon there came a day when mobile call rates were comparable to STD call rates. Plus, the convenience was beyond comparison. (the fact that incoming calls were made free was peculiar to India and it precipitated the situation, but the trend in favor of mobiles was there, regardless). For nearly a decade, the STD operators had more demand than they could handle. But when the forecasts kept rising, to the point that it was too good to be true, something else was at play.

A conversation I had with someone prompted me to write this piece (and re-read Joel's essay that I vaguely remembered). These days, I often get asked by relatives at social gatherings if it's still a good idea for their kid to be studying "IT", in the wake of the financial crisis. I usually smile and reply that it's hard to tell, and they should go ahead if their kid really likes computers. But they are quick to reassure me that some IT major is planning to hire 25,000 more people this year. Usually it stops there. Recently, one of them went a step ahead and quoted a survey. The survey predicted that the demand for IT professionals would be some fantastic number by 2015.

I don't remember who conducted the survey, but regardless of that, I find this argument very naive for many reasons. The reasons are to do with India, IT in general, and the very nature of software.

First things first, IT industry in India is a labor arbitrage business err.. that's a euphemism for "cheap Indian labor". Basically it depends on two things, availability of labor, and the cheapness of it. Which self respecting Indian would exclude capability as a factor? Don't we get software business because we are damn good at computers? Well, yes and no. We do get software business because we are good at it, but that's a very small percentage. It is unlikely that it's going to add up to lot in the fantastic number the survey quoted. And truth be told, that number is small simply because we don't have that many "good" software professionals. But why is cheapness of labor going to be an issue? For two reasons.

Domestic inflation: unlike western countries, India is going to continue to grow, and therefore experience a higher rate of inflation, which means higher salaries and higher fixed costs (real estate), which means it's not cheap anymore. We've already seen this in action. For well paying companies, the cost reduction ratio is down to about half from anywhere between a quarter to a fifth in the nineties.

Less evidently, exchange ratio. Am I out of my mind? Didn't the dollar just hit 50 to a rupee? It did, but that's the lull before the storm, or more correctly, the spike before the fall. The dollar's gains against the rupee have more to do with the financial crisis and a temporary credit crunch (that'd be a separate essay) than inherent strengths of currencies. In the long term, dollar is going to be closer to 35 than 50 to the rupee. That's going to mean our labor is less cheap. The RBI could try and hold the rupee down, but that'd lead to more domestic inflation in any case.

Secondly, we are no longer exclusive members of the cheap labor club. Our trans-Himalayan neighbors are making rapid strides in that direction and they have managed to effectively (even if perhaps unethically) keep the currency arbitrage going. A decade ago, the English barrier might have seemed bigger than the Himalayas, but they are well on their way to conquering that. Worse, they are not alone. Some south east Asian and north European nations are giving them good company.

Thirdly, IT is simply not going to be as labor intensive going forward. IT started off primarily as computerization, and then moved to solutions. The computerization era is clearly over. In fact, the data flow diagrams (remember learning them in college?) used to convert a manual process to a computerized ones were already obsolete five years ago. The solutions business has two parts to it: low-end and high-end. Low-end is low value and labor intensive. Case in point is Y2k. Other examples are maintaining main-frames and for that matter even low-end networking and administration. It's really not rocket science to see that all of them are moving towards less labor intensive solutions. We ain't going to have another Y2k, and the rest are simply getting replaced by smarter solutions which need lesser pairs of hands to keep them going. The high end solutions, like product development and IT consulting were never labor intensive to begin with.

Fourthly, software development is becoming commodity. This has two parts to it. Firstly, our programming languages and tools are getting better. There's a lot a single developer can achieve in python/ruby compared to a decade ago in C/C++, even Java. What's more, they are more amenable to small teams than gigantic ones. Secondly, we have simply figured out how to do certain things better and turned them into components. Rails is a classic case in point. It just takes so much less effort to create a website today than it used to a decade ago. This is the X' equivalent of software. Code that can write code will replace a pair of hands that can. Software development itself is getting computerized, in a way. All this points in the same direction: less labor.

Finally, and most disappointingly, we are churning out a lot of unemployables from our system. Becoming an IT professional has become a fad, and the herd mentallity has ensured that it has attracted a lot more people than it should have -- and inevitably, people of a lot less quality. This is not true of every country. It's not true in China because you the salary difference between an IT guy and the rest is not glaringly high, and not true in US because there is a culture of doing what you like, not just what the herd does. In fact, in the US, the shortage of IT professionals to fill up (the well paying) jobs, is what worked to India's advantage, both in terms of outsourcing and immigration. Given that most of the low lying stuff will be figured out by frameworks and the customization can be done even by a non-IT person, these low end people will soon become unemployable.

Only time will tell whether the Indian IT professional of today is the key punch operator of the 80's, but if the forecasted demand is the only reason your kid is going to do IT, then the answer is, don't let her do it. Personally, I wouldn't ever follow the herd knowingly. But in this case, the herd is clearly headed in the wrong direction, and that's all the more reason not to follow it.

Bye Bye Dada

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:59:38 GMT

It's ironic that a man who began his career with a graceful hundred at Lords had to end it with an ungainly first ball duck. But it's this uncertainty that makes this great leveler of a game called cricket glorious.

Here is a tribute to a man who was perhaps India's best ever captain(not just statistically), certainly one of the best one day batsmen of our times, and most certainly the best left hand batsman India ever produced. There are enough reasons to remember Saurav Ganguly in times to come. Personally, I think his biggest contribution to Indian cricket has been the fact that he inspired an entire generation of cricketers to see eye to eye with the best in the world, stand up and be counted. My top ten 'Dada' memories:

Dream debut: Enough has been written about his grace and the fact that he scored a hundred on debut at the so called home of cricket. But this hundred also epitomized something that would characterize Dada in times to come -- he had the uncanny knack of surprising people, of doing things when they were least expected. After the way his one day debut and his debut series had turned out five years earlier, precious few would have expected him to make an entry into Test cricket the way he did.

Torrential at Toronto: Dada could do no wrong at the series against Pakistan in Toronto in 1997 as he won three man-of-the-match awards in a five match series. He bowled, batted, caught, and made rapid strides towards sealing his place in the one day line up with an awesome all round performance.

Independence Cup, Dhaka: As Hrishikesh Kanitkar hit Saqlain Mushtaq for a four over mid-wicket at Dhaka history was made: India chased down 300-plus for the first time, in a final, against Pakistan, and without a major contribution from Tendulkar! Dada had perhaps played the innings of his life till then -- a masterful century that led India to a most improbable win.

Two to tango at Taunton: Dada's highest ODI score of 183 came in partnership with a man who would go on to be his reliable deputy and an able ally in further conquests -- Rahul Dravid. India shook off a shaky start to the 1999 world cup to maul the hapless Sri Lankan attack to all parts of the small ground. It was the then record for the highest partnership in an ODI for any wicket.

Jolting the Aussie Juggernaut: As Dada assumed captaincy in 2000, Indian cricket was at crossroads in the aftermath of the match-fixing scandal: "past imperfect, future tense" as a TOI headline put it beautifully. The 2001 home series against Australia was supposed to be the final frontier for a rampaging Aussie team under Steve Waugh. Very few would have bet against the Aussies, especially in Kumble's absence. In a series of historic proportions, Dada looked eye to eye with Steve Waugh, and even managed get under his skin. As Bhajji the turbanator and Laxman the artist combined under Dada to bring the Aussie Juggernaut to a screeching halt, a new era had dawned on Indian cricket.

Salman like shenanigan, and where! The 2002 Natwest final should of course be remembered for the Yuvraj Kaif partnership, and an awesome comeback. But the moment that will forever be etched in the minds of the desi junta, and make the sanctimonious MCC lot cringe in their seats even now, was Dada doing a Salman on the Lords balcony. If Freddie could do it in India, Dada could do it in England. It may be the balcony of Lords, but so what?

Glory, almost: The 2003 world cup campaign stopped agonizingly short of an encore of what Kapil's Devlis had done two decades earlier. Zaheer overdid the aggression bit and lost it, Gilly and big Matt took toll, Punter was bang on target and India never looked the part as challengers in a world cup final. There was no stopping the Aussies this time, but the message was conveyed -- if there was one team that could be the next world beaters, it was India.

Brandishing at Brisbane: At the end of the first day’s play at Brisbane, the Aussies were a few wickets down for 200 odd, and the Aussie media were all set to pronounce judgment before the plaintiff had even spoken – “Indian Summer Over?” one of them quipped. Lest the Aussies had assumed the Steve’s swansong was going to be a cake walk, Dada the warrior brandished his sword and served notice with a combative hundred. The series lived up to it’s billing as a continuation of the 2001 saga, and even though the Aussies escaped with a draw, they had been shaken up. And this time, it was in their backyard.

Spunky comeback: Dada ornamented his comeback season with two back to back hundreds against Pakistan at home, and in the process also scored his first double hundred. Even though this effort failed to elongate his career by any serious measure, Dada had proved to one and all and that he still had the spunk left in him.

Final salvo: The nonchalance of the announcement didn’t quite betray the gravity of it all. But Dada was never one to go out on a whimper. A match winning hundred in Mohali reminded everyone of a rare record – India have never lost when Dada has scored a hundred! The Aussie guard of honor was a nice gesture to a formidable foe. It is truly the end of an era – an era where India truly moved beyond Tendulkar, seriously staked claim to be amongst the best, and finally overcame their overseas jinx, all thanks in no small measure to The Prince of Kolkatta.

PS: As vinaygmurthy told me earlier, it’s perhaps time to start drafting “Bye Bye Jammy”! Are we in for another tea time surprise tomorrow?

F1 photo finish

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:15:51 GMT

I stayed up late to watch the final F1 race, and I guess it was worth it in the end; like Steve Slater said on commentary, they were perhaps the most exciting 30 seconds in Formula 1 history. Lewis deserves to be champion, Massa perhaps no less so, but his time will come, hopefully.

A look at the points spread amongst the top 4 in both the driver's and constructor's championships betrays one of the closest seasons in recent times. That is just awesome for Formula 1. Ferrari are no longer the dominant team they were (one can't help but feel Schumi is a factor in that), McLaren have won their first diver's championship after nearly a decade, BMW came a close third, and Alonso and Renault made a late surge to be counted amongst the top teams.

It's a tad unfortunate that there is no competition for rain when it comes to the ability to make races interesting. The increasing number of street tracks don't help either -- they make overtaking very hard, if not impossible. The FIA needs to keep that in the back of their minds when they look at rules and new tracks for future seasons.

It doesn't seem like Timo Glock intentionally slowed down to hand Lewis the championship. It was just a gamble that didn't pay off and made him look quite stupid. At the same time, I thought Vettel was stunning. He is quite clearly the flavor of the season and a man to watch out for. Unlike Glock's involvement though, there is no escaping the fact that his overtaking Lewis had more to it than just a mere championship point. He drives a Ferrari engine, and is widely believed to be next in line, should Felippe or Kimi slip up.

I hope Ferrari sort out their reliability problems and Kimi is back in form for the next season. If Renault continue to improve and BMW remain consistent, it could be another close season.

Bye Bye Jumbo!

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:21:21 GMT

Phew. Amidst all the talk about retirement, who should and who shouldn't, the eldest statesman of Indian cricket and one of the greatest bowlers that the world has ever seen has decided that enough is enough. As with everything else with Kumble, there is no questioning the timing or the manner.

Well played and thanks for everything, Jumbo. You will always be missed.

On this hugely sentimental occasion, here are my top ten Jumbo memories:

The Hero Cup Final 1992: I think Kumble cracked the last ball he faced for a four in the first innings, but his best came as a bowler in the second innings. He took 6/12 as a clueless West Indian side capitulated and India won their first major multi-nation series after a long time.

The unbeatable home run: Under Azhar, with the batting clicking like never before (remember Kambli's double hundreds?), and Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan for company, Kumble was instrumental in India whitewashing black and white sides alike -- one of the most successful phases for Indian cricket at home.

Foxing the Aussies at home: In 1996 and 1998, there was a lot of talk from the Aussies about neutralizing Kumble by playing him as an in-swing bowler. They kept playing him inside the line, except that Kumble kept hitting the outside edges and the top of off stump regardless. One my lasting memories from this series was the face of a bewildered Steve Waugh after he had been bowled by a Kumble flipper.

Making mommy proud: Most Bangaloreans would remember the ODI in 1998 (I think) when Kumble and Srinath combined to put up an unlikely 50 run partnership to beat the Aussies. Through out the partnership, the cameras were fixated on two spectators -- moms of Kumble and Srinath (supposedly).

Perfect ten at Kotla: Enough said

Bowling with a broken jaw: There have been very few epitomes of commitment in cricket better than this one. Scheduled to fly back home for a surgery, Kumble came back on to the field and bowled an inspirational spell to get the wickets of Brian Lara and Carl Hooper (off a no ball)

Breaking the abroad jinx: Back from a career threatening shoulder injury earlier this decade, Kumble was determined to conquer the last remaining bastion: winning India matches abroad. Beginning with Australia in 2004, he followed it up with consistent performances in Pakistan, West Indies and England. After this, the critics could still say he couldn't turn the ball, but they could no longer say he didn't get wickets abroad.

One better than Warnie: In an England tour where no top order Indian batsmen scored a hundred, one man did. Kumble may not have overtaken Warnie in terms of wickets, but he sure went one better when it came to batting (Warnie could score only a 99).

The lows of Sydney and the highs of Perth: Captaincy fell on Kumble's lap by default, but it was baptism by fire. Kumble found himself in the match referee's room for the first time after the ugly Sydney controversy. He won lot of acclaim for the way he handled the controversy. But that wasn't all, he went on to fashion one of the greatest comebacks in cricket's history -- the Perth test win.

The swansong: For the man who holds the record for the highest number of caught-and-bowled's, his last one captured the essence of it all. He was determined to go out on his own terms on his favorite ground. The timing couldn't have been better.

It's ludicrous to talk about filling Jumbo's rather large shoes. But Kumble will be a contented man and relieved that Indian bowling is in good hands. Let's savor the moment and salute a man who showed the world what discipline, hard work and commitment can achieve. If you ever wanted evidence that talent is over-rated, you need to look no beyond than Anil Kumble.

It's curtains over The Wall

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:40:52 GMT

As a Brett Lee full length delivery sneaked through to disturb the furniture, the writing on The Wall became clearer: it's time to draw curtains over The Wall. Rahul Dravid's career is over. As another low score staked claim to be the harbinger of doom (as if there weren't enough already), it was a moment of great personal anguish: it dawned on me that the career of a man I have followed -- right from his humble beginnings in Ranji cricket, through the days of glory, to the present inglorious and imminent end -- was effectively over.

I still remember first reading about him in the papers way back in 1993. After the 1992 world cup, I had become a regular cricket follower, so much so that I even used to follow Ranaji Cricket! He had just scored a hundred, I think it was in the 93-94 season, and the cricket aficionados in Karnataka were gearing up to end a prolonged drought of Karanataka batsman in the national side. A friend of mine happened to go watch a Ranaji match, and I remember asking him anxiously if he got to watch Dravid bat. He told me (in kannada): "stylish but tumba kuTTtane, salpa shastri thara". (He is a stylish batsman but a very defensive one, a bit like [Ravi] Shastri).

That's a characterization that has followed Dravid like a shadow, from beginning to end. I often remind people that he has the joint record for the fastest fifty by an Indian in one day matches, and that his strike rate from the 1999 World Cup onwards is better than that of Ganguly and Tendulkar and that he has finished matches for India like very few guys have. On the other hand, his dogged defensive style in test matches has won India test matches and saved many more. People adamantly typecast him as a batsman incapable of scoring. He probably was, during a forgettable phase of one day matches in 1998, but that has long changed. This shadow (befitting in an ironic way) will now play a part in precipitating his retirement. He is seen almost as an aberration in the Dhoni-Sehwag brand of cricket, and hence has no place in it.

Secondly, people widely believe that he has nothing left to achieve. He is one of the very few players to have scored over ten thousand runs in both forms of the game. He has overtaken Gavaskar in terms of run aggregate, and it seems impossible and even politically incorrect that he will overtake Tendulkar if he plays on. So what's the point in letting him play on? (But there is a little known record that Dravid is fast approaching, and I dearly wish that he can play long enough to get it. He is approaching Mark Waugh's record of 181 catches by a non wicket keeper in test matches. He is currently on 177. That's a an unlikely record for an Indian fielder and one that looks like being unconquered for a while. I hope that happens in Nagpur.)

Thirdly, unfortunately for Dravid, Ganguly's retirement has set a precedent. That's a precedent that had eluded Indian cricket in the past and in an era where it's fashionable to embrace anything that remotely qualifies to be in the Australian brand of playing cricket, it is one that is not going away in a hurry. If Ganguly can be shown the door, and given that Tendulkar is Tendulkar, is it not natural that Dravid be next in line? I hope for Dravid's sake that the Ganguly precedent is followed in full, and he gets to play the England home series. It will be befitting in many ways: he began his career aganist England away, and he can end it against them at home, and, he will have the catches record by then.

Fourthly, having ex-captains is considered a pain in the you-know-where. As unobtrusive and unassuming as Dravid is, the Aussies don't like to have ex-captains around, especially failed ones at that. Dravid's captaincy career began in a very promising way, and was even fairly successful during the Greg Chappel times, but the ignominy of the 2007 World Cup ain't going anywhere. With Dravid and Ganguly gone and Kumble to follow anytime, Tendulkar will be the only ex-captain left. But then again, Tendulkar is Tendulkar and he was captain a decade ago. So Dhoni will finally be fully in charge.

Finally, and perhaps most fairly, Dravid has had his chances. He has been having a somewhat prolonged poor run, and it's not that he is being overlooked after the first failed series. Relieving him of his place any earlier would have been injustice to a great servant of Indian cricket, but postponing it any further will seem lax on the part of the selectors, and may even set a dangerous precedent.

So folks, it's time to start drafting your epitaphs, and designing the curtain soon to adorn the wall. I hope Dravid makes the decision on his own, before people start shouting "why not", knowing full well that there'll be hardly any who'll be shouting "why". It's time for Indian cricket to stand up and applaud a man who has personified grit and determination, made an immense contribution, and has been nothing short of a "great batsman" of our times. As an unsung hero walks way into the twilight, the least we can do is to be lavish in praise and honest in approbation for this great warrior.

Amazon EC2 got even better -- cloud computing has arrived.

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:48:16 GMT

Amazon EC2 introduced two new features recently: Elastic IP addresses and Availability Zones. With these two much awaited features, I strongly believe that cloud computing has arrived. If you haven't started using EC2 yet because you thought cloud computing was too bleeding edge and unreliable for your liking, it's time to take a second look. If you have been using it, but were seriously worried about not having a phone number to call when an instance goes down, your calls have just been answered.

Elastic IP addresses are loosely equivalent to round robin DNS addresses/ multiple A records for a domain. In some ways it's even a step ahead because you don't need to worry about wrongly cached DNS entries and propagation. Clients continue to send requests to the same IP address and once the request enters the EC2 network, it's mapped to a different server.

Availability zones are analogous to having multiple co-locations/ data centers. The idea is that a network/power outage (or in even more extreme cases physical calamity) won't mean that your application is completely down -- an isolated set of servers in a different co-location/ data center continue to serve requests.

These two features are very important because they make up for the inherent reliability issues with cloud computing instances and take cloud computing a step closer to being a serious alternative to conventional server infrastructure.

Cloud computing has the potential to make reliable web scale infrastructure a commodity available to everyone, as opposed to an exclusive expertise available with a few large companies. And that means companies can focus on building applications without losing sleep over infrastructure reliability and scalability issues -- a huge step forward.

Sounds familiar?

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:50:18 GMT

Engineer: I'm having trouble getting feature y to work with Y, all the documentation I find is for making it work with X
Manager: We'll, at a high level, X and Y are the same, so I don't see why feature y doesn't work with Y when it works with X
Engineer (Murmurs to himself): How I wish feature y wasn't actually at the murky depths but was instead at your awesome high levels!
Engineer (actually says): Yeah! Makes sense... I'm trying to get it to work.

One more...

Manager: Can we also add (insert innocuous looking esoteric feature) to the current release schedule? I think it should be a small change...
Engineer: Hmm... yea... err.. I mean no... it'll need some design changes
Manager: Oh! I think it is very similar to (insert feature that manager thinks is huge but is a two line change) that you already did. We should make our designs more flexible, extensible and modular.
Engineer (murmurs to himself): When was the last time you wrote any code? And how flexible, extensible and modular was that? And how much time did you give me to write this?...
Engineer (actually says): Yeah! Makes sense... I'll work on the design

There are so many more, but I somehow can't remember them right now. What are your favorite Dilbert style engineer-manager stories?

Is there a job which...

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:40:42 GMT

... has the following characteristics?

involves a lot of problem solving and constant challenges
involves a lot of learning and articulation (reading, writing and communication with co-workers)
the required output is more conceptual
pays within +/- 20% of the salary product based IT companies in Bangalore pay
has a chance (even if the probability is very small) that you will hit gold and make a lot of money
people with only a graduate degree are also welcome
is based out of Bangalore

Based on my experience in the industry so far, that's how I'd describe my ideal job. But I just don't know if such a job exists or not. Does it?

Alternately, if I had to relax the above constraints (get a degree, accept lesser pay, move out of Bangalore etc..), what would maximize the possibility of leading to job with the other constraints in tact?

Pointers?

PS: This is not in anyway a reflection of my current job situation and/or of what is present/absent in my current job. It's just a thought.