Devil Behind the Clouds

The photo was taken during an eclipse as the sun was partly covered by the moon. The rest of the arc was covered by the cloud. Making it look like devils horns and the characteristic red is simply stunning.

Now the metaphoric - The photo captures a church in front. Satan hides to cause the damage despite having God in the light. OR - although the devil may seem obvious, look carefully and you will find God.

East vs West - User Experience

I've decided to write some articles on how the west and east are different in areas that I am most familiar with. This one is about a common GUI feature - Graphic User Interfaces and user experiences in particular. I should warn you that I am notorious for stereotyping.

Ok, so let's start (I say start cos I intend to add to this series).

Creating Entities on Web based systems

In the past, online systems would gather all your data and then create an entity. Say for e.g. if you were placing an order, you would have to complete a form and then hit submit. The website's program would gather all your info, create a new entry on the database.

Later things started getting complex, for e.g. with shopping baskets, and thus the forms started getting bulkier which meant you'd have to spend over 10 minutes just filling up stuff before you can have your order created.

Hence, the standard was to create the order first, and then update this. Here is where the difference comes:

In the west, UK for example, a database entry is created and the Order ID is passed to the interface from the order database. This is like a placeholder, that the user is unaware of. This is not displayed on the screen untill the form is completed. When the form is complete, the record is updated. The user does not see any of the complicated token system. The reason the 'hidden token' is practiced, is because it allows the site to monitor orders that were initiated but not placed. Also, it allows queueing when orders are processed. But main motivation is to make life easy for the users or first time visitors.

In the east however, India for example, all this is exposed to the front end. The user has to first create a 'blank' order. Then the user has to open the blank order and add details to it by using an update option. Technically this is very robust - the user can keep a record of the 'blank' order created. Also, the user gets to understand how the site works (not sure how this helps really)

However, the problems with the later method is it's not user friendly - the user will need to understand two streams of operations on the site
a. Order Create
b. Order Update

I think it boils down to assumption of the audience's intelligence.
Programmers in India find it hard to appreciate how naive some of their western users can be. It also relates back to how we treat people - in the west, there is a general appreciation for other's time and energy. People in the west (in general) are caring and friendly when it comes to customer care. Back home however .. let's just say it's a different story.

My Favourite Lines from Merchant of Venice

SALARINO:
Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh: what's that good for?

SHYLOCK:
To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.

He has disgraced me, and hindered me half a million;
laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains,
scorned my nation,
thwarted my bargains,
cooled my friends, heated mine enemies;

and what's his reason? I am a Jew.
Hath not a Jew eyes?
hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?

fed with the same food,
hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases,
healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?

If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh?
if you poison us, do we not die?
and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge.
If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge.

The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

Border Control Analogy

Start with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.

And that, your honour, is why I was at the border shooting at illegal immigrants - to deter the rest.

A rare and most pleasant surprise

I had a horrible day in London trying to find a decent place to live - at one point, was thinking if I am making the right move leaving the tranquil life in the west country.

LaterI got home, and saw this:

The good, the bad and the ugly

Here’s an old fable that I came across in a video.

A wolf saw a new born lamb, and said “Hey, you were the one who dirtied my water last year!”  The lamb defended, “No sir, it wasn’t me”.  “No, I know it was you!!” the wolf insisted. The lamb tried to explain, “But sir, I was only born this year. How could have I possibly dirtied your water last year?” “So it must have been your mother then for which you must pay”, and thus the wolf started feasting on the lamb.

The mother sheep came by, and what could the poor mother do when she saw her son between the jaws of the wolf torn into pieces? In passion of her motherhood, she head butted the wolf. Of course, the wolf was not affected by the mother sheep, but shouted out to other animals, “Look at this terrorist, head butting me”. The parrots heard the loud wolf, repeated in numbers what the wolf was shouting, and joined in voice “Yes, we condemn the ewe butting the wolf.” Where were the parrots when the wolf ate the lamb? 

The above fable was used by Osama Bin Laden when developing an analogy for the 9/11 attacks back in 2011, the wolf being USA, the water being Israel, the lamb being Palestine, the mother sheep being Iraq, and the parrots being the western media.

Of course, we now know through conspiracy theories, Osama’s logic was fairly scripted, as the attacks were portrayed as an act of defence. My personal modification of the story would be:

The wolf assembles a loud group of smaller wolves in sheep clothing, instructs them to bite and scratch it and then yell out to the parrots that the mother sheep and her clan did so.

Actual YouTube from Al Jazeera

Career Starting Tips - Questions to Ask Yourself

My professor at uni asked me to present for the new graduates, so I thought I get clever and discuss two fundamental questions I think many employers these days ask fresh graduates and so I thought I could put some structure to this. If you're at an early stage in your career, just out of uni, thinking where and how to start applying, maybe you can start getting your roadmap right by asking yourself the following questions:

1. Do you want to utilize and enrich a certain skill set or do you want to grow experience in a particular industry ?
2. Do you want to start at entry level at a large firm and work your way up, or do you want to join a small firm at a pivotal role?

The diagram above shows the four possible responses to the questions and I'll describe below their descriptions and impacts as far as my brief experience in the market has been.

Skill set specific job in a small firm - 

Skill set specific job in a large firm - 

Industry specific job in a small firm - 

Industry specific job in a large firm - 

Father and Son - Cat Stevens

It's not time to make a change
Just relax, take it easy
You're still young, that's your fault
There's so much you have to know

Find a girl, settle down
If you want, you can marry
Look at me, I am old
But I'm happy

I was once like you are now,
And I know that its not easy
To be calm , when you found
Something going on

But take your time
Think a lot
Think of everything you got
For you will still be here tomorrow
But your dreams may not

How can I try to explain
When I do he turns away again
Its always been the same
Same old story

From the moment I could talk
I was ordered to listen now

There's a way , and I know
I have to go away
I know, I have to go

And all the times, that I've cried
Keeping all the things I knew inside

And it's hard, but harder to ignore it
If they were right, I'd agree
But it's them they know, Not me now

There's a way , and I know

That I have to go away 

I know, I have to go 

SQL Snippet - How to count the number of characters in a string

I've come across a number of methods to count the number of characters in a string in SQL Server, but this is by far the most clever:


SELECT LEN('How to count no. of o') - LEN( REPLACE('How to count no. of o','o','') )

The replace function replaces all 'o's with '', therefore removing them.

The difference in lengths is therefore the number of 'o's.

Lyrics - Yeh jo Halka Halka Suroor Hai (Ustaad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan)

Saki ki har nigaha pe balkha ke pee gaya
Lehro se khelta hua lehra ke pee gaya

Aye rehmate tamam meri har khata muaaf
Mein inteha e shauk mein ghabra ke pee gaya

Pee ta bagair izn, yeh kab thi meri majaal
Dar parda jashne yaar ki sheh paake pee gaya

Zahid yeh meri shokhiye zinda na dekhna,
Rehmat ko baaton baaton mein behla ke pee gaya

Udi udi ghataye aati hai,
Mutribo ki navayen aati hai
Kiski yeh soo khuli hai saawan mein
Mehki mehki hawaein aati hai

Aao sehne chaman mein raks kare
Saaz lekar ghataye aati hai,
Dekh kar unki akhniyo ko adam,
mehkado ko hayae aati hai

Paas rehta hai , duur rehta hai
koi dil mein zaroor rehta hai

jab se dekha unki aakhon ko,
halka halka suroor rehta hai

aise rehte hai woh mere dil mein
jaise zulmat mein noor rehta hai

ab adam ka yeh hal har dam
mast rehta hai, choor rehta hai

The same nation that sighed a relief at the loss is now rejoicing its reclamation

I’ve been flicking through the Bangladeshi channels over the past week sitting here in London and it’s the same celebration everywhere – triumph of the execution of the assassins of our father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It’s great news, a great achievement – but how much role did the people celebrating the event play in this victory?

I’m not a historian, and never sat down to go through Bangladesh’s history – but I do have conscience. Father of nation or any common man for that instant, the assassination of an entire family in such a brutal manner deserved just trial and punishment, and this deserved in any era, and any country. Why did it take this long then?

I was born years after the liberation. Like me, youth of today did not experience the cloud of chaos that covered the country after its liberation, nor did we face the rise in nepotism and corruption in Bangladesh during the regime of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. However, we have been fortunate enough not to experience the same over the last ten years. I say fortunate for a reason – this is so our fathers can live to compare what happened in the past with what is happening in the present. Unlike the event that took place in 1975, such has not repeated today.

Then why does the title sound so provocative? Today, the assassins have faced just punishment and we are all rejoicing and celebrating this as reclamation of our pride, honour and national interest. Where was this when the assassination took place? History leaves it’s footprints in places other than our hearts and memories. After the military coup took over on August 15th, almost every leading nation including Russia, America & China recognized Bangladesh as a new country where they could invest in. The country’s people breathed a sigh of relief after the political family regime was thrown over. I remember phrases such as ‘Only one segment amassed wealth while others were suffering, in an impoverished new nation’. Isn’t this the same nation that is now celebrating the execution of the assassins?

People will get me wrong and misunderstand me – what happened on 15th August 1975 was brutal, and what happened on the 28th January 2010 was justice. My question is, how shameless are we? And do we have any conscience at all? On one side, the nation thanked God when the dictatorship was overthrown. On the other side, the same nation thanks the same God for punishing the people who made the overthrow possible. I don’t blame the nation anymore – how can we expect our people to remember what happened 35 years ago, when our memory is refreshed every five years during the elections.

To be perfectly honest, over the last 10 or more years, only families closely attached to the Sheikh family have pursued this day – or families who directly benefit when the Awami League party is in power. On the other side, only families directly linked with the army personnel who were involved in the crime were keen to avoid this day. The common man and common population of the country is just like a swing – it rejoices and revolts only when it comes with benefits.

Shame on the nation for its weak conscience and memory. Shame on the nation for lack of its own judgement. Bangladesh is said to be one of the happiest countries in the world – I am not surprised.