Thought Garage

Wouldn't it be good to have a reality check for what is being taught at Schools? Yes, for sure. But it wouldn't happen if Academia doesn't respect people who really work and come back to teach.   If my opinion counted, I'd argue that any academic department worthy of note should include a group of faculty with a long experience of the day-to-day of industrial software development. They would be valued on how they had reflected on this experience and drew from the lessons to inform their teaching and research. I'd like to see a regular rotation of people from the academic to the industrial world, where it's common to see people spend several years in industry, then academia, then industry again, and so on. This problem isn't only in software. A friend of mine had the chief engineer role in one of the most challenging engineering projects in the world. He fancied a stint in academia, but was only able to get a second-class position reserved for people who w...

The days of 'Free' Customer service looks to be over. At least a quality customer service is. This comes to me (and I am sure for most of you) as a big surprise, but I guess we all have to get used to this. Occasionally, "we've heard from customers that it's hard to understand a particular accent and that they couldn't understand the instructions they were getting," said Dell spokesman Bob Kaufman. So, Dell introduced a Support Service called as 'Your Tech Team' Service, that promises that Technical Experts are from North America (instead of Bangalore, India for instance) and average wait time would be less than 2 minutes. Sounds Great, finally Dell heard the Customers. Not quite. This service is not for every Dell customer that purchases a Dell product, but only for those who pay an additional $12.95 a month to receive this 'premium' service. And Dell Spokesman put a PR spin to this 'Pay if You need Good Customer Support' se...

After a freezing couple of days, today looks much better with temp reaching 60s. Little fog early in the morning, but not a problem to cruise.

Placebo effect can be used by drug companies to make you sick. See all those depression ads. See all those advertisements that say 1 in 10 has this cancer or drug, so go for this addtional testing or take this medicine. Placebo effect can work this way too.

Barack obama and Oprah have inspired millions of people, not just in USA but across the world. However, this week they both admitted, they are in need of some motivation to keep their addictions under control. Obama smokes cigarettes, even now. He could win USA presidential elections but he couldn't win over his own addiction of smoking. Oprah couldn't control her own body weight and shape. She is, by her own admission, out of shape. I guess both of them need a little bit of motivation and little change in their mindset that it is not okay to let it loose. The whole world is looking up to them. When some body says, (s)he is not perfect, they really mean it. It's our fault to mean it otherwise.