So, I was thinking # 1

There are three fundamental physical quantities.

Length, Weight and Time

The greater part of the world uses the metric system of measurement to measure length and weight, and other derived quantities (like force and acceleration).
The metric system is an international decimalized system of measurement that is the common system of measuring units used by most of the world.

For example all lengths and distances, are measured in metres, or thousandths of a meter (millimeters), or thousands of metres (kilometers), and so on. There is no profusion of different units with different conversion factors, such as inches, feet, yards, fathoms, rods, chains, furlongs, miles, nautical miles, leagues, etc. Multiples and submultiples are related to the fundamental unit by factors of powers of ten, so that one can convert by simply moving the decimal place: 1.234 metres is 1234 millimeters, 0.001234 kilometres, etc.

This of course, has been done for standardization and convenience of conversion.
Similar story with grams, and Kilograms and milligrams.

But think about time.

This one is sort of the odd one out.

To begin with, this is a physical quantity, which cannot be seen or touched. Yes, man has found a way to keep track of it, or to measure it, as we say. But that is more like cutting up an unending ribbon into pieces, so that it is easier for us to gift-wrap our small packages.

And then, when we do cut it up, why do we cut it up into such strange denominations?
What I mean to say is, why is it 60? Why does a minute have 60 seconds? And an hour has 60 minutes? Why not 100? The length of time, which we call a minute, could as easily have accommodated 100 seconds instead of 60, right? Or an hour comprising of 100 minutes. But it is not so. In spite of being so madly in love with our 10s and 100s, we still measure time with 60 seconds and 60 minutes and even stranger… 24 hours…

And it beats me… And so, I was thinking about it…

What do you think could be the reason? Has it anything to do with a circle having 360 degrees, and time being measures by two radii along a centre? Or perhaps it has some other history behind it? I don’t know. But if you have an answer, or actually let’s rephrase it, if you have a thought on it (thoughts are not Googled, and are therefore different from answers, unless of course you already know about it) then enlighten me!

(there might be more ‘so, I was thinking’ posts, and therefore this one is #1)

Cobb's Cob

(Warning:This post is not for the impatient.)

I am a business analyst at an IT firm. My job entails looking into the clients’ businesses and telling them, how we can help them do it better. So, often before we can tell them, how they can do it better, we have to understand how they are doing it currently. Or as they say, understanding the ‘AS-IS’ process.

Some of these hot-shot fortune 100 companies have processes and systems which belong to the neo-Paleolithic age. So, to understand the ‘AS-IS’ is more like being at an excavation site, digging up bones from the Stone Age. It has its own charm (the bone digger will vouch for it), but sometimes it can get very VERY tricky.

This is the story of one those times.

So, this company, that I’m currently doing the project for, has offices across different cities in the US of A. Different people handling different functions (processes) at these different locations.

For example
• Process A at New York
• Process B at Ohio
• Process C at San Francisco
• Process D at Las Vegas

These processes (A, B, C and D) operate in a nested structure which looks something like this:
Process A (Process B (Process C (Process D)))

Which means: to complete Process A, you have to complete process B. And to complete process B you have to complete process C and so on.

If you have reached till this point, pat yourself! You are indeed patient.
10 points to Gryffindor!

Ok, back now! Now, let us look at it from a ‘systems’ perspective of the structure.

Process A running at New York, uses System P.
From system P in New York (used for process A), you can access system Q (used for process B) in Ohio
From system Q in Ohio (used for process B), you can access system R (used for process C)
You get the drift, right?

Now, if you thought, this was a little complicated... in comes the excavator (or shall we say the extractor!) aka yours truly! Sitting in Chennai, Da!

To start process A, you must login remotely to a computer in New York, from the computer in Chennai. Now I hope you remember that to complete process A, process B needs to be completed.

So, yes, go drink some water, pee, and come back, this is going take a while…

So, I was saying, to complete process A, process B needs to be completed. So what do you do? (Remember at this point, you have already logged in to the terminal in New York). Now, you login remotely from the computer in New York to the computer in Ohio to complete process B.

Yes it is getting a little smoggy, isn’t it? But wait. Because by the time, you login to the terminal at San Francisco you are pretty much in the middle of the Cobb web. You are trying to switch between terminals, furiously trying to keep track of which level/ process/ city you are in, but DAMN you!

AND THEN, in walks Mr. Christopher Nolan sir jee!




He looks at me, smiles and says,
‘No, there is something fundamentally wrong in that structure. All the levels can’t be operating at the same speed. As you go deeper inside, the perception of time elapsed increases. So, an hour in Chennai, is a day in New York, and a day in New York is a week in Ohio. But I warn you. If you go to Las Vegas, then you’ll come out of it, an old man, with your brain like mashed potato’

I ignore him. Think he must only be kidding about the speed thing.

Lesson# 1: Always listen to Christopher Nolan!

And then it starts to happen.
To open a browser on my own machine in Chennai- .3 secs

To open a browser on the machine in New York, via Chennai- 1 min

To open a browser on the machine in Ohio, via New York, via Chennai- yes, you can go drink some water and come back, and it is still opening…

To open a browser on the machine in San Francisco via Ohio, via New York, via Chennai- Hey, you want to go for lunch at this new restaurant in T Nagar? It’s a little far away. But it’s got an excellent buffet spread. Perfect for opening a browser in San Francisco

To open a browser on the machine in Las Vegas via San Francisco via Ohio, via New York, via Chennai- DIE OLD MAN, DIE!!!

Yes, you want to get out, but right when you need it, there’s no one to kick you!
Now, if you thought Las Vegas was all fun, then well
Lesson# 2: Limbo Las Vegas is not good! Opening a browser takes an eternity! Imagine, how much time, the strippers must be taking to, you know, strip!



Anyway, enough said. This post is a ‘in-between-work’ post.

I am currently in San Francisco.

Talk of DREAM job!!

And oh! Slytherin gets 100 points and wins. Haa!

Neurotransmitters

Here’s the thing. I am lazy. Really Really lazy. All that excuse about being busy and all, is just bull. One can always find time. Half an hour. No big deal. Unless of course one is lazy. I’m. Lazy.

I just got interrupted. Interruptions don’t help. Not at all. You have to get the thing done at one go. Otherwise the moment is gone. Forever. You can’t do anything about it, once it is gone.

‘A’ once told me, that scholars at MIT juggle. When they are thinking deeply about something, they start juggling. It increases their concentration. I am no MIT scholar. And I have horrible hand-eye coordination.

Anyway, so the point is my blogging record is abysmal. Actually not even abysmal. It is non-existent. So, I am thinking I should do something about it. There has to be pattern to it, right? I mean a routine? Like every time ‘something’ happens, I blog. That ‘something’ can be anything really. Like every time it rains I blog. Or every time my maid doesn’t show up, I blog (then I’d blog, every Sunday or the entire month of December). Or every time I don’t brush my teeth, I blog (I’m not providing statistics for that one). There has to be a trigger. I am not saying, if the trigger is rain, then every time I write, I’ll about rain. Or my maid (But that could actually be an interesting proposition).

And that brings us to the next question. What should I write about?

I just got interrupted, again. DAMN. I should learn to juggle.

So I was saying. Content. Now, any Communication01 lecture will tell you, that the content of any presentation should be decided according to the audience. Right. Audience. Let’s ponder over that for a minute, shall we?

Ok, so I’m sure she will check my blog. And him. And him from that city. Oh, and sometimes, the other one also might drop in. 4 people. Yes. Ok, then. 4 people. But I don’t know what these 4 people might want to read. My best guess is that they will not want to read my blog. It’s difficult to target, when you don’t have a segment. Yes. One must target.

Do you think, I am digressing? I mean what are we even talking about? But well, I think it’s good to digress. What I mean is, lots of time you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most. I mean you can't help it sometimes. What I think is, you're supposed to leave somebody alone if he's at least being interesting and he's getting all excited about something. I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice.

So I think that’s what I’ll do. I’ll digress. And you digress best, when (as ‘B’ puts it) you feel like a police van in Kashmir. Yes. So every time I feel like a ‘police van in Kashmir’, I’ll digress. It might be interesting. Unless of course I’m feeling lazy. But I feel lazy a lot. I’m lazy. I swear I am.

(Why is the name of the post neuro-transmitters again?)