Serendipity - A Fortunate Accident...

You might be thinking how can a accident be fortunate? Actually we Indians have got used to term "accident" in a negative sense. But don't you think sometimes we "accidentally" run into a old friend. Sometimes "accidentally" find a very old snap in our room. Sometimes "accidentally" we do something which really touches our loved ones. So there are lot of other contexts for this term "accident" other than a road accident, where few people die and rest get stuck in a traffic jam for hours.

This whole life is a series of accidents. Both good and bad. Now only time will tell whether meeting you turns out to be a serendipity or just one more accident.

Some snaps...

Why I write this blog???

"Why i write this blog"? This is one thought that has crossed my mind many number of times. Sometimes i feel all these blog is such a big waste of time.There should be really good thinking, a central idea or a thought process to write good blog. Or else I have to write about all the crap things i am doing to pass my life.But most of my blogs lack all of these. But still I cant help it. I cant stay away from writing this. Sorry i end up wasting both my time as well as others.

For all these waste of time first of all i have to blame deepu for inspiring me indirectly to write blogs. First time i felt about writing my own blog is when i read his blogs. I have read many other blogs, but his were very different and more interesting.

Then I started writing my own blog and I really enjoyed it. There are few good reasons behind me liking this blog very much. Blogs are like human beings. You can talk with your blog( Only thing is, its one way communication). I can tell any thing to this blog and he will never question me back. He listens very quitely to all the stuffs that I have to say. He will never come back to me giving suggestions and advices. You will verey rarely find a human being with a tendency to sit and listen to your words without asking any questions . So i like this thing.

Then response I got from outside world about my blog was bit disappointing. Then slowly I felt that there is no point in writing this thing as other people are too busy in their own lives. Then i decided that i will quit. I can remember a small talk given by my hostel mate Dr. Nagu some years back.

He told me that Identity Crisis is a very dangerous thing. Each and everyone will try their best to get identified and appreciated by others. Why Cant a singer listen to his own song and feel happy about it. Why he always expect others to come to him and appreciate his singing. And if he does not find enough people to appreciate his singing. He will be disappointed. Thats Identity crisis. Life would have been better for him if he can listen to his own songs and decide whether he is a good singer or bad singer. No point in listening to other's input.

So here I am, back again, writing for myself and not for others. And i really love talking to this blog, cause he never questions me back.

Nitin

Human Body is just a Embedded System..

This article is written by a embedded engineer who was pathetic in biology, all his student life. Even today I get nightmares when i hear terms like zoology, homo sapiens and killing cockroaches just to check whats there inside. I dont understand the need to call it "Rosa bracteata" when we can do with a simple four lettered word Rose.

I was always amazed to see so many similarities between human body and embedded systems. The more i know about embedded systems, the more they resemble to a human body. Now the whole idea is to see a human body in a embedded engineer's perception.

Let me introduce you to the engineer who designed this system ( When I say "system" here, I always mean human body..). People call him GOD. I like this word "GOD". It sounds so secular. He can be either Rama, Krishna, Allah or Jesus.God can be anything and he can be anyone. ಸರ್ವಶಕ್ತ and ಸರ್ವವ್ಯಾಪಿ ( Omnipotent and OmniPresent). Here i prefer to take nature as God, or i should say the rules and laws that define the working of nature as God. Lets go back to main topic.

Human body is a embedded system with a very fast computing single processor and nine input/output peripherals. Now this single processor called as brain is tightly connected with all parts of system with super fast cables called as nerves for data communication. Out of Nine I/O interfaces, Two are used only for output ( Actually one of this output interface is used in dual function mode. I may call it as SLEEP mode and STAND mode ... ;) ). Remaining seven interfaces are tied to four different types of sensors (I can see, smell, taste and hear cause of that).

Sleep condition : Usually this is a state where system activity will be very less. So system will disable its inputs and outputs, reduce clock frequency and reduce power consumption. In this system it almost disables all four sensors and definitely reduces our thinking capacity. If i am not wrong, then sleep state will also be used to mange our memory segments (I read this information somewhere...). So its like mandatory to go into sleep mode for atleast 6 hours everyday. Someone without sleep will die sooner than somone else without food.

The whole system will be enclosed inside a protective layer called skin which will be covered with a layer of sensors. These sensors will give information about outside world and saves system from any external threat. If their is any attack on system ( like cold, fire, cut, some insect bite etc..) then these sensors will pass that information to processor. Thus this protects system from outside world. But these sensors will have low priority interrupts ( It always takes some time to feel something.. If i put my hand inside fire just for a fraction of second, then i will not feel heat.. so i guess these sensors have low priority interrupts.)

Now lets talk about power. We need uninterrupted energy to run this system. This is a must as we dont'a have concept of RESET or RESTART ( How about someone telling, " Hey, I cant see things properly, My Vision drivers have crashed,Let me Restart myself".. We cant do that. This is not some Windows machine..) We don't have batteries which can run for 70-100 years and changing batteries is very impractical. So we will not be able to use batteries ( Thank god there are no batteries. What if someone comes and removes my battery and i will be dead in no time..). I cant even imagine plugging human body to a external power supply for couple of hours everyday ( Imagine someone saying " My body battery is very low... can you charge me a bit :)"). So god came up with this wonderful idea of having a power generation unit. Yes we have one of finest power generation unit inside us ( Power generation unit that does not pollute nature...) . So now we can run this system for any amount of time by just giving fuel in form of food everyday. This food will be burnt inside us to convert into energy which will be supplied to all parts of body and we have provision to store excess fuel in form of fats. I have lot of excess fuel stored in my belly :). I think no engineer ever thought of having a power generation unit inside embedded system with only purpose of supplying uninterrupted energy to embedded system. What An Idea SirJi ?

In this system all energy or fuel will be passed to various body parts through a liquid medium called blood.He has a very complicated internal pipe network to take this liquid to every part of system and to get it back ( Arteries and Veins..). There is a central pumping unit called heart which makes this liquid to travel everywhere. There will be a system collapse when this pumping unit fails. According to Indian law, " A person's Death should only be confirmed by making sure that his heart has stopped working..".

We have a fantastic memory management unit which runs garbage collect utility every second ( garbage collect utility deletes data and frees all memory which we might not use in future..). Thus it deletes thousands of memory cells and makes us to forget things which we might not use. ( For Aamir Khan in Ghajni it was deleting useful data as well...). As the system is expected to run on an average for 70 years (Some times 100 years as well.. ) nature has made sure that this memory management works properly. Its good that we forget few things. But problem is we forget good things and end up remembering bad things. It is said that we use only 5% of our memory, Remaining 95% will always be free. May be its just because memory management unit and processor can handle only 5 % of memory usage. So this MMU keeps deleting all information to make sure that memory usage is less than 5%. I can always explain about my first meeting with her, almost two years ago, in minute details, but cant remember much about things that i did two weeks back. This is because, My Memory management Unit knows very well about things which it is supposed to delete and other important things which it has to conserve in permanent storage for a very long time.

Interesting thing is god has created two different versions of this system Male and Female. ( Now don't ask me which is version 1.0? because in embedded whenever system fails, we call it version 1.0 and then move on.. :) ). I should say Male as version 1.0. Because in Version 2.0 God has included one more important module, Reproduction module ( Though version 1.0 has activation code for reproduction module.. God is such a Genius..Best hardware and firmware engineer) . Version 1.0 is very strong, designed to do hard work and take tough decisions . Version 2.0 is very delicate and breaks down emotionally quite often. Both are similar systems designed to do two different sort of things. Things will work out only when both versions stay and work together helping each other. That's the foundation base of our society structure.

Usually we will have a large manufacturing firm to build millions of similar embedded systems. Again this is very impractial. Imagine having something like " Reliance human body manufacturers" ( I believe reliance is in to all sectors except this..). So god gave system this power to copy itself or in exact terms "to produce a similar system". A system which has power to produce a similar system with some initial cooperation from another system. Again What an Idea SirJi.

After writing all these things i am getting a feeling that we can apply all laws of embedded systems with human body. But we cannot explain a human body only w.r.t embedded system. Its much more complicated than that. Actually we need lot more other things to explain it, and there are few things which we may never be able to explain. We can never explain how a child in his mother's womb suddenly starts moving by getting so called life.( For Initial 8 weeks child in womb will be still, but after that suddenly it starts moving to show the whole world that it has got life..I was really thrilled when i read this information..).

Human body is just a material hardware with sufficient provision to enclose a life in it. We can do a lot of research on this human body as a material. But we cant explain what brings life in that and what makes it to die. Life and Death are the two things that we might not be able to explain.So lets not bother much about that. Feel good to be enclosed inside one of the best designs of nature - HUMAN BODY.

Nitin

Completed three years in this industry..

YES. This month i will be completing three years in this industry.

I can still remember my first day in mindtree. I was completely clueless about the work that i am supposed to do in mindtree. I always used to wonder about the work that we need to do, to get such a nice pay ( Yes three years back I was in a illusion that Mindtree is giving me a nice package). Then in first week I figured it out that we have to do coding and I did not knew any computer languages. I just knew C in bits and pieces which i studied in my first Sem. Most of other people who joined mindtree with me were like experts in multiple languages. That's when I realized that I am neither fit for this industry, nor well prepared enough to work in a company. May be my mentor figured it out that i will never be able to learn anything other than C(Even after three years i know only one language - C ). So after two months of C training and some good C results I landed in Mindtree Bluetooth Research team.

First couple of months was horrible and I used to get some nice scolding. All my variable names will be like a,b,c...z and I used to have all magic numbers in my code. Then my PM asked me to stop coding. He wanted me to go through the code of some already implemented application for a week. Then i came to know that coding in a certain style is as important as making sure that there are no bugs. At that time i wanted to be a expert in bluetooth. But soon i realized that its a dying technology( And we were not able to market our BT IP as well..).

After getting a release from BT, I got a chance to work in USB driver. Project was to port whole USB from Linux to Nucleus RTOS ( I know thats illegal to port code from a open source, but we were doing that to build expertise in both USB and Nucleus RTOS). As soon as that project got over I knew it was time for a jump. By that time I was pretty comfortable with embedded systems and had worked with 3 processors and had knowledge of both bluetooth and USB. I had also designed and implemented bootloader for couple of boards in ARM.

Things I have gained in Mindtree :
1. Most ideal company to start off my career.
2. Mindtree is the company which gave a direction to my career and made me a embedded engineer. Thanks to my mentor who thought that i cannot do programming in any language, other than C.
3. Company culture is one of the best in industry and got a chance to learn more about industry.
4. Mindtree went public and gave me a chance to make some money as well.
5. Got a chance to learn two important technologies there, Blue tooth and USB.
6. Met some wonderful people in form of my mentors, colleagues and project managers.
7. Got to see some nice, good looking and cute girls everyday :)

Things i have lost in Mindtree:
1. Mindtree is like government company. People don't have that spark and commitment to excel.
2. I am a very complacent and lazy guy. Mindtree ideology made me more complacent and lazy.
3. Pay Sucks.

With time, I was becoming more and more complacent and desperate in mindtree. Then came to know that symphony is looking for a embedded guy who has some experience in USB and Bootloader. They selected me in just one round of interview. Two days after that some bank in USA went bankrupt, marking the beginning of recession and all companies including symphony stopped hiring.

In last eight months, i have learned more things in Symphony than what i have learned in two years in mindtree. Even though the project was small ( It was a bar code scanner that we see in all shopping malls), it was like working from scratch. Developing something from end to end. Starting from requirements, design and implementation. Best part of the project is that there were only three people to do this and it was mandatory for all three people to know and understand each and every module.

I feel kind of weird to call myself a software engineer, because i never implemented application that runs on a actual system (apart from some modifications in USB driver code in Windows). May be I can be called as a firmware engineer or semi hardware engineer. Most of the code that I have developed are running on small embedded devices.

Things I have gained from this industry in three years..

1. Satisfaction in work. I never thought much about my career. Its just that things came up and I accepted all of them. Today i am very glad with whatever i am doing. Life is like a running stream. Sometimes its better not to struggle much and just flow with the stream.

2. Financial stability. Not need to think much while spending. You always feel good when you know that there is some money in your pocket.

3. Five days a week. So lot of time to do things which i love the most. Like traveling, reading, eating and sleeping ( playing cricket some times..). Best part of my career is that i had never been to office on weekends.

The only bad thing about being a embedded engineer is that there is no on site opportunities. The best on site I might get in my career is either a week in korea for requirement gathering or a week in Singapore for customer demo. But anyhow on site is not in my priority list. So i can do without that.

Sad part is that In last three years i have lost lot of hair and gained lot of weight because of this industry.

Nitin

ಬಾ ಮಳೆಯೇ ಬಾ...ಬಿಡದೆ ಬಿರುಸಾಗಿ ಸುರಿ

It was raining that evening. It has not rained in Bangalore for few months now and we don't expect it to rain in month of April as well. But on that evening it was raining. I don't know, whenever i have a plan to meet you, it starts raining. Eventually spoiling all plans and preparations and making me to re plan whole stuff again dynamically. I think the rain god don't want to leave us alone. He just comes in whenever you are with me. Usually in movies when girl meets a boy, it happens that sun or moon will come out, flowers will bloom, wind will blow, nice music in background etc ( Only in recent kannada movies it rains as well.. like mungaru male..). But in my case definitely it rains. Not only it rains, it rains very heavily.

Its not that often I get a chance to meet you and spend some time with you. Most of the time i will come to know about your availability in Bangalore only a few hours before. Still i try my best to plan the whole evening on such a short notice. I make sure that i plan it such a way that, I show you all the beautiful things in and around and buy you a plate of Gobi Manchurian and Masala Puri. I am sure you will not get Gobi and chats in your place.

Whenever i see something beautiful or Whenever I eat something delicious, first thought that crosses my mind is, you should have been with me to see this beautiful thing or to eat this delicious stuff. So i just make a note in my mind to get you here, next time when you are in Bangalore. These small notes are getting piled up in my mind. So when are you coming here?

It was raining that evening. I just went through all the places in my mind to select the best and then plan the evening. Everything was on track till this rain started. Now i have to re plan few things. Don't Worry. It does not matter how bad it rains, I will take you to Malleshwaram and will buy you a plate of Gobi and Masala puri. After finishing our dinner plan, Rain got very worse. Looks like this rain god is very angry with me for disrespecting him by going ahead with my malleshwaram eating plan. By the time that evening got over, with me wishing Good night to you, we were both completely wet. I think now the Rain god is happy. That's the last time i saw you, with rain drops falling from your hair and face. That's the last time i wished you Good-Night.

After that it has not rained in Bangalore. Now the Monsoon is also getting over, But No signs of Rain. Every day I sit outside my balcony and hope that it will rain again, like that evening and we will meet. It seems Rain god is still laughing at me. Oh Rain God, You Cant kill my hope. I am sure it will rain one fine evening.

ಬಾ ಮಳೆಯೇ ಬಾ
ಅಷ್ಟು ಬಿರುಸಾಗಿ ಬಾರದಿರು , ನನ್ನ ನಲ್ಲೆ ಬರಲಾಗದಂತೆ
ಅವಳಿಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದೊಡನೆ , ಬಿಡದೆ ಬಿರುಸಾಗಿ ಸುರಿ
ಹಿಂತಿರುಗಿ ಹೋಗದಂತೆ .. ಬಿಡದೆ ಬಿರಿಸಾಗಿ ಸುರಿ
ಬಾ ಮಳೆಯೇ ಬಾ

Few people started inquiring me about this blog. So let me make it clear, Its just a fiction inspired from those four lines of kannada song.

Nitin

Moments of life..

There is a scene in movie "Bluffmaster", where junior bachan comes to know that he is going to die. Baman tells him that he has very limited time. We have lived so many moments in our life time but when we look back there will be very few which we will never be able to forget. Baman asks AB to live those moments again. That scene really made me think about myself. How many moments are there in my life that i will never forget. Well so many things passed my mind in a second. Well Lets make a list then.

First time when i saw my nephew, Aditya. He was just couple of days old and was looking like a lump of flesh, completely red and used to sleep for 90% of day. Still he looked so cute. I was waiting next to his bed till he opens his eyes and sees his uncle. While waiting their i observed this thing. Sometimes suddenly he used to smile in his sleep and some other time he used to cry. My amma told me that as these kids have no other thing to do, so god gave them lot of sleep. In their sleep God tells them something good, so they will smile. I just gave a weird look at my mom and told that, " I really appreciate that imagination of god telling something good and making small kids smile in their sleep".






At last he woke up and i got a chance to hold him in my hands. I was wondering what can a child which is just two days old, can think in it's small tiny brain ( He has to think something as our brain never stops..). With no previous memory ( I am sure in 2 days not many memory cells would have been filled..) entering into a completely new world, just to find few weird creatures holding them and smiling at them and trying to communicate in some weird language. By the time that kid gets a chance to think, he has to sleep again ( God has given him a boon to sleep for 90% of day..). Life would have been so good, if i can also sleep for 90% of day and SMILE IN MY SLEEP ( I can easily sleep for 60% of a day..).

Got to GO. May be i will come here some other time and finish this blog.