Leaving for the DDay

Well people me leaving for Nagpur today for my marraige on 26th :) I think i am happy :)

References

And ya the CSS for the small shell script was copied from Harshal's docs :)

Curtain raiser

Weekend was hectic..bought a lot of stuff for the house. Curtains for the front room and for the bedroom were bought on saturday. I have definitely progressed in life..the color choice for the front room curtains was mine :) and I also contributed a bit with the bedroom ones. On sunday me and Megha..ok..mostly Megha to be true :), arranged stuff in the house..put on the curtains etc.

I also bought a gold ring and a pair of shoes..shall post a pic of them later if i get the time..In the meanwhile checkout the kitchen and the wardrobes.

Also I finally got around to finding and using a tool which can convert the ultra big 2048X1536 images to 800X600 on the command line. Imagemagick does the trick with its convert utility (thanks to mitra for the pointer). e.g

// reduce all the jpg images in the current directory to 800X600.

    for img in `ls *.JPG`

    do

       convert -sample 800X600 $img small-$img

    done

On the work front I was working on a bug and have come up with a possible fix. Somebody from the Canada team has already fixed the bug though and I want to compare my independently arrived fix with his..hmmm how come i managed to get an independent fix?? well the fixer did not bother to put any patch or comment regarding the fix on the bug (reminds me of the practices of some teams in fR :( sigh!) and thus helped me with independent thinking :).. Anyways..I dont have a source control integrated build as of now so i cant even go and check the file versions non-trivially so might have to wait longer..

PS:If the pics appear dark increase the brightness in your image viewer or monitor.

Online Flexibilities

Great thing here is that the flexibles can be customized anytime by the employee through an online system. So somebody who really does not bother to collect and submit bills for medical and stuff can just declare that i want all the amount as a flat allowance. Also the account details etc can be filled in online. So I dont have to deal with morons to note down my account number and submit it to the right person :) Investment details etc can also be submitted online! Good stuff.

Non-compliance

Hmm, my desk was audited for security it seems in my absence since last evening..and not surprisingly I have been found to be non-compliant with the security policy :((..I was found guilty of leaving personal documents unsecured on the desk..had to sign a non-compliance form declaring that i have taken corrective measures, after which i got back some of the documents, like a undeposited cheque, school leaving certificate etc, that were attached to the form by the security personnel.

Corrective Measure? Shall have to get the keys to the locks for the several drawers and table cupboards. Here I have 3 drawers and 2 cupboards in the desk, as opposed to only one of each in firstRain, so there is potential to have a lot of mess in them! :)

Introspective/Reflective thought: In a way its good..I had kept unsecured all the papers/documents that i have collected painstakingly in my life..god forbid if ever they are misplaced i would be crying a river.

Also I got done a HIV test (a standard procedure before getting married) and blood group test yesterday (remember I need it for getting the parking sticker). The HIV test was -ve as expected and my blood group is A+. Megha's blood grp is B+. So I guess this is not a problem.

A blood test is a simple affair. A drop of blood is put in three different chemicals. Depending on the coagulation in these three the grp and the Rh factor are found out. Two of these are for indicating the A and B grps. One is for the Rh factor. Coagulation in any of the first two indicates the A/B'ness. No coagulation indicates O grp. Coagulation in the third chemical indicates a positive Rh factor. This is the basic funda as learned from the testing lady in the diagnostic center :)

Pics..

This is the house where i ll be staying on the 1st floor.
I work on this machine and this machine keeps me going.

Success..

Debug build is ready, let the weekend festivities begin :) BTW a house has been finalized and the deal signed. 2 BHK, 1st floor house..owner (Mr. Krishna Reddy) stays on the ground floor. House abt 1.5-2 kms from the office. 1.5 kms further down is Megha's office. Owner had a few doubts about my marital status which i clarified very gladly :))

rose.exe

Currently working on building rose.exe :) A decent build doc exists courtsey my buddy. Still i goofed up at a few places..inexperience with VC++ can't stay hidden for long :p This is just a build of the source that i have copied from one of the guys...a proper checkout etc from the source control system in here takes abt 1-2 days I m told :((

hmm cool coffee machines here..they offer an assortment of cappuccino, espresso, machiato, plain coffee with milk etc..all freshly brewed..there is a lunch area on the terrace..has a nice decor..food has tasted ok till now. Seems there is a TT table too somewhere on the terrace..ll probably catch my buddy here someday for a game.

what's the prez doing up here??? Which intelligent open source advocate got the idea to do this??? aaarghh!!!

Day two at the company was a bit better..I walked in, filled up the
form for an ID badge..yes i have to carry one arnd my neck all the
time :(..got a temprary badge issued..howeever could not get a parking
sticker since i did not know my blood group..for some strange reason
for issuing the parking sticker the security wants to know my blood
group! Not a big deal though, I just parked my bike outside the
office.

Then i went up to my seat and soon found myself facing a monster, an
IBM machine, black colored, 21" flat screen monitor, 2GHz pentium 4,
1.2 Gigs of RAM an 80 GB 7200 HDD, with a a DVD drive. I enquired
later and got to know that the monitor costs 950$ and the whole
machine costs 2000$ :o Then i start working and find out that the damn
thing does not have a roller mouse..so i ask the sysad and he says
that no policy for getting me a new roller mouse :(( I ll have to buy
one on my own now..600 Rs it costs..just 12-14 $ dont know what the
fuss is all abt. Anyways i m still reasonably happy with my
workstation :)

Then I got a Lotus Notes ID. hmmm i need to learn new stuff now..need
to learn all the keyboard shortcuts and all..its a pain when you are
forced to re-learn all such sundry stuff like mail clients etc when
you would rather be spending your time learning abt the product you
are gonna be working on.

My current effort involves getting to know what the product is and
what is the philosophy abt the processes that it advocates, the
abstractions which have been developed etc. So going through all the
tutorials and some training videos.

Monday morning 1st December. I get up early, dress up and go to IBM
Rational office in Koramangala. This is the office i had attended my
interview in and so it was perfectly legal for me to assume that I
would be going into the office, contacting some HR person and will get
the joining formalities done..and get some postponed :) for I had as
usual kept some stuff for the 11th hr and had not been able to do them
:)

I fill up some form at the reception and get stuck since i do not have
an employee id. After some time when a manager arrives he informs me
that I have to go to some other office to complete the formalities. I
go there and pain the HR that i have not been given an employee id in
the offer letter. Turns out that this id is given only after
successful completion of paper work for which a chest x-ray and a
letter from the previous employer about the acceptance of my
resignation is essential. If I dont get these i dont get to join on
that day and will lose a days pay :o

So i rush to a diagnostic centre..ask whether an x-ray can be done and
the reports received in an hour..pat comes the question "Are you from
IBM?" :)) Turns out i have to go some place else since the radiologist
has left. So i rush to another place..same story there.."Are you from
IBM?", they ask :) I give then a smile and say yes, get the xray
done..then search for a photo shop..get 4 polaroid photos done (I
ignore the insistence on the offer letter abt white background and get
photos with red background..) Soon i also realise that I no longer
have precious documents like my BE and Mtech degress and my passport
with me :(( I get tense for a while but then conclude that i could
only have forgotten them in the IBM office and call up the people
there..seems the HR female is not available and so I have to wait till
i get to the office to find out if my documents are indeed there...I
collect the x-ray and then go to the office..search frantically for
the documents..they are to be found nowhere..throat goes dry..then i
see the HR female looking at me..she says.."if u are looking for your
originals they are with me don't worry"..then an atheist thanked god
:)

So everthing is now set..I fill up the forms to the best of my
abilities..cursing and abusing..but i do get it done..Then i reflect
back on the happenings in that office..It is an office dedicated only
to new joinees. It is called the "IBM Welcome office"..people come
there in hordes everyday and the HR female there goes through the same
hell everyday..yet she manages to keep a smile on her face and make
individual remarks like "I have found that all Rational employees are
jovial" :)) I admire her and thank her for saving my originals and
being patient with all my doubts and queries..

Most of the other people were from IBM Global Services and were given
fundaes in sessions about following dress codes and stuff..I know i m
not gonna follow it :) so i sleep through it..

So all done i submit my papers and then i m asked to meet an
RDM(Resource Deployement Manager) The hordes of people that join in
first have to report to this person and then he makes some entries
into his excel sheet..greets everyone with equal enthusiasm "welcome
to IBM and have a great career with us". New joinees have to come to
the same office until they are assigned to a project. So the welcome
office is a welcome bench..To meet the RDM i have to stand in a
queue..the whole place almost resembles a government office..except
that some of the people here a bit more helpful and courteous..IBM has
a pretty well developed bureaucracy in it.."get the x-ray or u ll not
be joining today"..general "get this.get that..go here..go
there..please wait..i ll come after some time" are common..although
this is largely an issue with scalability and the number of people
employeed there, but one still feels frustrated at the state of
affairs...Anyways i meet the RDM and then i talk with the HR female
for a while, thank her again for my documents and then leave for
good..after a day of frustration i m finally an official IBM employee.

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