Thought Garage

Can medication influence your dreams? Can medication help you alter your thoughts? I believe medication can not cure anxiety and depression either. As per my understanding, anxiety and depression are related to and caused by our thought process. There is no individual that I know of who never felt anxious or felt depressed. Everybody feels the burst of anxiety when he/she is about to do some thing new or when some thing is uncertain. And everybody feels little depressed, when some thing does not work out the way we expect it. It is quite common behavior. I strongly believe that anxiety and depression can be cured and is possible only by acting on the root cause, changing the thought process and behavior. There is nothing wrong with the people suffering from it. They just needed a break. Let them realize that. It is definitely possible by continuously nurturing positive thoughts and behavior by giving them support and incentives at every opportunity to indulge in an activity of their ch...

Six sigma methodologies help in achieving operational excellence in most of the transaction oriented business enviroments. However they are not as effective as the hype created in developing a new product and in building software. Here is my posting in response to a query on “6S_SWSE · 6Sigma - Software & Systems Engineering” group on yahoo groups, about the effectiveness of Six Sigma methodologies in creating a new software product. “Six Sigma processes like DMAIC can be used to achieve operational excellence; reduce waste, improve the existing process etc. If your organization is a traditional software services company or a BPO or pure transaction oriented, DMAIC would be of great benefit to the bottom line. All the projects that I could see and the initial literature on Six Sigma and Software development aimed at improving the organization’s software development process. Code review improvement, test coverage, effective testing etc. I would love to see some literature o...

It is interesting to know that web services can be supported on a variety of transports other than HTTP. Microsoft's Indigo support some of them ( HTTP, TCP and MSMQ) while other transports (SMTP, UDP, IBM MQ, In-process) can be integrated with the WSE framework. The important aspect of SOA, interoperability is however remain an issue as it takes time for all vendors to support any of these alternate transports. In this excellent Article , "Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Choosing Alternate Transports for Web Services" by Simon Guest, Microsoft Corporation from The Architect Journal of July 2005, Simon Guest illustrates different scenarios that need an alternate transport to address the problem.

Recent articles by Bjarne Stroustrup * C++ in 2005 by Bjarne Stroustrup, an extended Foreword added to the Japanese version of "Design and Evolution of C++". Here is peek in to the sections of the document: The Design and Evolution of C++ Where we are – 2005 Where we were – 1995-2004 Where we might be going – 2005-2014 * The Design of C++0x by Bjarne Stroustrup, published in C/C++ Users Journal in May 2005

I found an excellent online SS7 Parser at http://www.ss7parser.com. The web site features sample messages for MTP3, ISUP and TCAP(AIN0.2 and SCCP Subsystem Mgmt). If you have binary dump of any message, you can parse that message too. The parser page also allows to edit the existing sample messages on the web page itself. The message editing page shows the byte number and current value and allows you edit the byte right next to it. It is a great aid to learn SS7 messages. Only ANSI versions are supported at this point. “SS7parser.com supports most of Bellcore GR-246-CORE, GR-1299-CORE, and ANSI T1.113-1992″.

It is interesting to know that web services can be supported on a variety of transports other than HTTP. Microsoft's Indigo support some of them ( HTTP, TCP and MSMQ) while other transports (SMTP, UDP, IBM MQ, In-process) can be integrated with the WSE framework. The important aspect of SOA, interoperability is however remain an issue as it takes time for all vendors to support any of these alternate transports. In this excellent Article , " Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Choosing Alternate Transports for Web Services " by Simon Guest, Microsoft Corporation from The Architect Journal of July 2005, Simon Guest illustrates different scenarios that need an alternate transport to address the problem.

Wondering why always bad news makes to the top in all the traditional media. Be it the tv, news paper or magazines, it is always some bad news makes the front pages or the top news. Posted here are the snap shots of BBC and CNN front pages, with full of items of killings, terror and such. I do not understand how much all those news items matter to an individual. I understand that in many parts of the world, people are suffering due to few narrow minded individuals. I share their cocern in creating awareness. But too much focus on bad news alone make things worse. If your kid is not feeling well, what kind of stories you read him. Stories of suffering or stories of hope and healthly living? Some times it helps the greater cause, not to highlight the bad things. Don't these media houses have any social responsibility?

"Talking Phrasebooks", a mobile application by GrapeCity India has won the prestigious US Handango Champion Award for best Industry Application for the Pocket PC for 2005. News Posted at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1427484,0002.htm

An interesting insight into efforts towards turning risk-averse traditional Indian minds into full blown global innovators. I believe it is quite possible, for I don't know why it is not possible. I see sparks here and there, but if it becomes an organizational effort and everybody in the community supports, as mentioned in the article, we are sure to make the I in India stand for Innovation. Give Me An Idea India needs to take risks and back innovation for scientific progress opinion by Dr.R.A.Mashelkar Read the Opion here

Image Courtesy: Copyrights by Historylink101.com & found at India Picture Gallery. BBC News Posting: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4650065.stm Necessity is the mother of invention. This truth is quite evident from millions of every day innovations passed through generations in India. There are more so in the traditional scriptures. But there has been a focussed approach to collect and document all those grass root innovations in India by different organizations. Read this article to see some of those inventions and how the organisations started it all. Here is another prominent web site, Good News India that showcases the grass root level innovation across India.

Original BBC News Post: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4333627.stm India wins a landmark patent battle at the European Patent Office on an neem based anti-fungal product, thus setting an example for other groups to follow in proving the vast knowledge hidden in the traditional communities and scriptures. A patent application must be rejected if there is prior existing knowledge about the product or process. But in the United States, "prior existing knowledge" means that the process or concept must be published in a document that is available to the public. It is not acceptable legally if this knowledge is passed through generations, exaclty traditional Indian knowledge has been disseminated. So, Invaluable knowledge the communities possess and available in scriptures need to be disseminated to the world before greedy corporates across the world obtain patents based on this knowledge. Indian tradition believes Knowledge is power and is free.

I heard great stories in books and magazines that enterprises go extra miles to make customers happy. Some even touted customer as a god or of that importance. I read lots of articles about how customers and their interests are driving the new economy and how all efforts becoming more customer-centered to do their best of service to meet the needs of the customer. But when it comes to experience, I realized that it is just another set of key words in their marketing pitch. End of the day, the customer service sucks at almost all major companies. They dont care what you go through as long as their bottom lines are secured. They never seemed to honor their own commitments, leave alone trying to help the customer. When everything goes well, one may not realize what it means. But when a little adjustment is needed or facing a problem, one will realize how good are their intentions and what they really mean they are. I have not felt even for a second that they are trying to help me outin an...

First thing to say Vonage dont care about customers is evident from the fact that Vonage charges you from the moment you signed up, though the equipment to connect and use arrives almost a week later. So for the first week, you are paying for nothing. I called Vonage a week before my moving and asked to cancel the service at the end of the month. I clearly mentioned to the agent two times that I needed the service to be cancelled at the end of the month, not the day I called for the cancellation. He said, that would not be a problem and he would take care of it. He told that there would be a cancellation fee around $40 that would be refunded once I return the equipment. Foolish agent, cancelled the service almost immediately. I realized when I tried to call my friend a little later. I checked the vonage account on the net. It was terminated. I received a mail that the service was cancelled from the day I called it self. I told him two times that I need it to be cancelled from end of mo...

I was planning to move from Austin to Dallas over the memorial weekend. Once I decided my dates, on my friends advice I immediately dropped down to a near by U-haul dealer and did the booking to pickup the truck on the Friday. I was very happy when the dealer said; I was lucky to get the reservation confirmed during the memorial weekend. The contract paper printed to me said that, it confirmed the availability of the equipment for pickup on Friday, however some one from UHaul would call me one day before to give me the location of the dealer from where and when I can pick it up on Friday. But no body called on Thursday, as they promised. On Friday morning around 11AM, I calledu-haul and told them that they were supposed to call me a day before. The agent sound polite and said that within in next 30 minutes some body would give me a call and give that information. I was very happy with the response and the 30 minutes target they set themselves to respond to a customer. I was busy for al...

Having a terrifying and frustrating experience with U-Haul, I started searching for other options and I found Penske and Budget Truck rental. I had no luck with Penske, it was fully booked until next Wednesday. I went to Budget truck rental web site, and tried to make the reservation. To my surprise, trucks were available to be picked up on the Memorial Day itself. I booked a truck to pick up at 4PM on the Memorial Day. On that day, I called up the dealer location. No body picked up the phone and it was automatically transferred to Budget Truck national service number. So I tried to go to the actual location to find whether the location would open on that day. I spent almost half an hour at the street address, but could not find the location. I called the customer service and explained the situation and asked for any alternate phone number. She gave me a number, but the same story with the new number. After a few rings, it would automatically transfer to national service number. I call...