Appraisal Letter

There was a contest in Some Software Company to write a fictional story for 500 words max which would start with the line " On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Chennai station"

This is what a guy wrote for the contest....... and surprisingly, it was adjudged the best short story : ))

On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Chennai station. At once I was held back to see someone in that position during mid night with no one around. With curiosity taking the front seat, I went near the body and tried to investigate it. There was blood all over the body which was lying face down. It seemed that a ruthless blow by the last train could have caused the end of this body which seemed to be that of a guy of around my age. Amidst the gory blood flow, I could see a folded white envelope which was fluttering in the midnight wind. Carefully I took the blood stained envelope and was surprised to see the phrase "appraisal letter" on it. With curiosity rising every moment, I wasted no time in opening the envelope to see if I can find some details about the dead guy. The tag around the body's neck and the jazzy appraisal cover gave me the hint that he might be a software engineer. I opened the envelope to find a shining paper on which the appraisal details where typed in flying colors. Thunders broke into my ears and lightening struck my heart when I saw the appraisal amount of the dead guy!!!!! My God, it was not even, as much as the cost of the letter on which the appraisal details were printed.... My heart poured out for the guy and huge calls were heard inside my mind saying "no wonder, this guy died such a miserable death"... As a fellow worker in the same industry, I thought I should mourn for him for the sake of respect and stood there with a heavy heart thinking of the shock that he would have experienced when his manager had placed the appraisal letter in his hand. I am sure his heart would have stopped and eyes would have gone blank for few seconds looking at the near to nothing increment in his salary.

While I mourned for him, for a second my hands froze to see the employee's name in the appraisal letter... hey, what a strange co-incidence, this guy's name is same as mine, including the initials. This was interesting. With some mental strength, I turned the body upside down and found myself fainted for a second. The guy not only had my name, but also looked exactly like me. Same looks, same built, same name.... it was me who was dead there!!!!!!!! While I was lost in that shock, I felt someone patting on my shoulders. My heart stopped completely, I could not breathe and sprung in fear to see who was behind......... splash!!! Went the glass of water on my laptop screen as I came out of my wild dream to see my manager standing behind my chair patting on my shoulder saying, "wake up man? Come to meeting room number two.

"I have your appraisal letter ready".

Source : One of the forwarded mails, Too Good na.



@kova

Version Control with Subversion

Revison Control System(RCS), VSS or SVN are few of commonly used Version Control Systems.

Subversion is a centralized system for sharing information. At its core is a repository, which is a central store of data. It is mainly used to maintain source code and files related to a project. It works in a typical client-server model. Any number of clients can connect to server and do read or write operations. But differnce between server and respository is that it remembers every change ever written to it: every change to every file, and even changes to the directory tree itself, such as the addition, deletion, and rearrangement of files and directories. Client can read latest information or information about who did the changes last time, what are the changes he made etc.
Advantage of Subversion system is, if two Users A and B wanst to edit same file F, then they can check out F from repository and get local copies, do edit and commit the changes to repository. Subersion control follows copy-modify-merge model instead of conventional locking model. In this model, if A does changes on F and commits and B also does changes in F and wants to commit, then repository says, F is out of date, just update your file,so that changes done by A are merged. If A and B does changes at same location in F, then repository says F is in conflict state, by showing changes done by A and changes done by B. User has to decide, which changes to keep and which changes to be discard and do necessary changes, should resolve the conflicted state and commit changes.

Few useful commands (for Version Control with Subversion)

svn co --- for check out

svn commit --- for check in

svn up/svn update ---- To update local copy

svn add --- To add a file or directory to svn

svn remove --- To remove a file or directory from svn

svn cleanup --- Recursively clean up the working copy, removing locks, resuming unfinished operations etc.

svn revert --- Restore working copy. Undone changes, if any.

svn resolved --- Remove 'conflicted' status of working copy files or directories.

svn di/ svn diff --- Display the difference between two paths.

svn st/svn status --- To see status of files in local system wrt files in svn(at the time of check out)

The first six columns in the output are each one character wide:
First column: Says if item was added, deleted, or otherwise changed
' ' no modifications
'A' Added
'C' Conflicted
'D' Deleted
'I' Ignored
'M' Modified
'R' Replaced
'X' item is unversioned, but is used by an externals definition
'?' item is not under version control
'!' item is missing (removed by non-svn command) or incomplete
'~' versioned item obstructed by some item of a different kind
Second column: Modifications of a file's or directory's properties
' ' no modifications
'C' Conflicted
'M' Modified
Third column: Whether the working copy directory is locked
' ' not locked
'L' locked
Fourth column: Scheduled commit will contain addition-with-history
' ' no history scheduled with commit
'+' history scheduled with commit
Fifth column: Whether the item is switched relative to its parent
' ' normal
'S' switched
Sixth column: Repository lock token
(without -u)
' ' no lock token
'K' lock token present
(with -u)
' ' not locked in repository, no lock token
'K' locked in repository, lock toKen present
'O' locked in repository, lock token in some Other working copy
'T' locked in repository, lock token present but sTolen
'B' not locked in repository, lock token present but Broken

svn --help --- To get Help on svn commands


@kova

Swayam - An eventful event

One of the events that took place in Sunday evening are "Swayam – on our own", by Manthan, an NGO. This event is supported by Shree Siddhi Vinayaka Trust. Event took place at Nardulla Tank Maidan, Behind Siddhi Vinayak Mandir, Dadar.

About Manthan: It is an NGO, founded by Gourav Sharma. Since one and a half year they are actively working for the beneficiary community such as children from juvenile, street, special, blinds on a volunteer basis. It was started with an idea of providing extra curricular activities such as dance, yoga, theater, singing, self-defense, fun games and outdoor recreation activities.

About Swayam:

Chief Guest : Shri S. M. Krishna, Governor, Maharashtra.

Started with Jyoti Prajwalan by Honorable Governor Shri S.M. Krishna. He presented mementos to few people who excelled in their fields, Manishri, who was awarded "Balashri", Bhushan, who was power lifting champion in physically handicapped category, Gourav, for his service to special children and Sarfaraj, who was leading a Band called "SARGAM" with visually challenged people. In Governor's speech, he mentioned that he is impressed with events by visually challenged people and we should honor these special people. Event was anchored by Raahin. Around 17 NGOs and schools participated in this event, some of them are Salaam Balak, Women's collective, MNB Blind School, Kamla Mehta School for Blind, Victoria Memorial School for Blind, Yuva Unstoppable. Welcome song was sung by Manishri. It is followed by performance of SARGAM, a band with physically challenged people. Shravan is part of that band, who has distinguished talent of singing with both male voice and female voice. Uday Deshpande has conducted show of Gymnastics, Mallakhamb, Judo and Yoga by visually challenged. These are from Kamla Mehta school for blind and Victoria Memorial school for blind. Then there was dance performances from mentally challenged and physically challenged. Most interesting and exciting event - Jal Deepasan followed dance. Two guys from Victoria Memorial School for Blind, who were visually challenged showcased their talent while having a "Deep" in a glass of water on their heads. They performed many yoga aasanas including padmasan, shavaasan, Noukaasan. Anvesh from Tata Institute of Social Service played drums and sang a song. Event was ended by thanks giving note and National Anthem. Shree Siddhi Vinayak Trust was very co-operative for whole event. Mr. Nitin Vishnu Kadam shared his views on Swayam, on behalf of his trust. Gourav thanked all the volunteers, participants and audience. Around 1000 children from different schools and different places were present for the event.

It was awesome pleasure to be part of this event as a Volunteer and thanks to all who supported this event and made it Success.

@kova

Why am I interested in Social Service

Why are you into Social Service???

The More people I meet, the more times I was asked this Question. Of course, I am not into Social Service full time. Social service is a very big word. I am not Game for that word. I spend week-ends on it doing something or other. Usual answer from me is "This society has given me a lot - Culture, Education and Attitude". I want to give them to people who are looking for it.

I work for a company in IIT B, Mumbai. Here, I see labs which costs very high price. But students pay hardly thousands. But from where, IIT got the money. People say... From Government. But where did Govt get money from? People is the answer. Taxes paid by them brought each and every facility we are getting in our colleges. So Don't we have the responsibility to work for people who are not getting enough food or right education?

Fortunately, I have got very good friend's network in Mumbai, who work hard for themselves and work for others betterment. Kudos to Minoli, Gandhar, Ketan, Manoj and Michelle.

Purpose of this blog is to provide some source whoever is interested in these kind of things and to motivate others. Of course, who, the hell am I to you unless you are self-motivated.


@kova

Manthan event

Invitation to attend an event organized by Manthan, an NGO working for the beneficiary communities

Dear,

Friends.....

You are kindly invited to celebrate SWAYAM- On Our Own on 10^th Feb '08 Sunday 3:30pm to 7:30pm, Nardulla Tank Maidan Near Siddhivinayak Mandir, Dadar West.

"SWAYAM- On Our Own" a step towards humanity, we at Manthan and Shri Siddhivinayak – A Great Solace unanimously take the vow to stand for the differently abled community. Also through this program we would encourage the youth of India to build and showcase their significant abilities.

The Cause:

SWAYAM is an event being organized for the special children and adults who are visually impaired, mentally challenged, physically disabled and hearing impaired. The life of these special people starts with additional struggle than that of others. They have to do extra efforts to achieve basic milestone, which comes to us naturally. Being on the other side of society, they become resilient and prefer to take life "head on". Their approach towards life is different as they have the audacity to fight and enjoy life with a smile on their face. We salute them and as a support to their resilient nature, Manthan is organizing

SWAYAM "on our own"

We are gratified by presence of esteemed dignitaries participating in this festival.

AIM OF SWAYAM:

To prove that they are not disabled but are "differently able".

1. This event will not only give them a chance to participate but also it will give them the exposure towards all the communities.

2. It will be an opportunity for recognition and appreciation for the participating NGO's, special schools, institutions and vocational training centers, for the kind of work they do. As this event will highlight their work and efforts to be a difference in these special children lives.

3. To make a committed and determined volunteers base who will actively be a part for the ongoing programmes.

4. To boost their self – confidence and motivate them to continue with the wonderful work they do for the society.

Thus this event will help in the overall development of the society as a whole. Highlighting the issues of the special people and thus helping them get their due in the society.

Schedule for the event:

2.00 pm volunteers will assemble in the Ground

2.30 pm - 3.00 pm volunteers re-alignment session

3.00 pm - 3.30 pm Group making the Ratio will be 10 volunteers to 25 kids

3.30 pm – 4.00 pm re-organizing event related work and Arrival of Participants

4.00 pm –4.15 pm – organizing the participants

4.15pm –4.30pm -- welcome song and guest introduction

4.30pm -5.15pm -- 'SARGAM' the Beat Makers an orchestra performed by blind will demonstrate their musical talent

5.15 pm – 6.00 pm visually challenged will perform Gymnastics, Mallakhamb, Judo and Yoga. (Food packets n Water will distributed to the participants while the programme is on)

6.15 pm – 7.00 pm mentally challenged and physically challenged will perform dance.

7.00 pm – 7.15pm Thanks giving speeches for our supporters and well-wishers

7.15 pm – 7.30 pm Closing ceremony with National Anthem

(We are providing refreshments to all participants and transportation if more than 40 people coming)

Please contact Organizer's on:

981 991 8030 Gaurav S Sharma (gaurav.manthan@gmail.com)
998 759 3490 Sanket Sawant
9819110994 Jigna R Dalal

Address: 18/a, daruwala bldg, 2^nd floor, room no 31, mangalwadi, girgaum, mumbai 40004.

Website: www.manthanngo.org

@kova

A Note on Makefile

GNU make is a utility to maintain groups of programs.

The make command allows you to manage large programs or groups of programs. As you begin to write larger programs, you will notice that re-compiling larger programs takes much longer than re-compiling short programs. Moreover, you notice that you usually only work on a small section of the program (such as a single function that you are debugging), and much of the rest of the program remains unchanged.

The make program aids you in developing your large programs by keeping track of which portions of the entire program have been changed, compiling only those parts of the program which have changed since the last compile.

Syntax:

make [ -f makefile ] [ option ] ... target ...

Usually, name of 'make' file is Makefile/makefile. But it can be any user-defined name.

@> make - will search for default makefile.

To make, makefile with user-defined name, command is
@> make -f myMake

Makefile works based on Rules.

Rules:

A rule tells Make both when and how to make a file.
As an example, suppose your project involves compiling source files main.c and add.c then linking them to produce the executable project.bin. Withholding a detailed explanation for a bit, here is a makefile using GNU C which will manage the task of making project.bin:

The Example Makefile

project.bin : main.obj add.obj
gcc -o project.bin main.obj add.obj  

main.obj : main.c
gcc –c main.c 

add.obj : add.c
gcc –c add.c 

This makefile shows three rules, one each for making project.bin, main.obj, and add.obj. The rules as shown above are called explicit rules since they are supplied explicitly in the makefile. Make also has inference rules that generalize the make process.

Dependency Lines: When to Build a Target

The lines with the colon “:” in them are called dependency lines. They determine when the target is to be rebuilt.

To the left of the colon is the target of the dependency. To the right of the colon are the sources needed to make the target. A dependency line says “the target depends on the sources.” For example, the line:

project.bin : main.obj add.obj 

states that project.bin depends on main.obj and add.obj. At run time Make compares the time that project.bin was last changed to the times main.obj and add.obj were last changed. If either source is newer than project.bin, Make rebuilds project.bin. The last-changed time is the target's time as it appears in the file-system directory. This time is also known as the target's timestamp.

The Make Process is Recursive

It is a basic feature of Make that a target's sources are made before the timestamp comparison occurs. The line:

project.bin : main.obj add.obj 

implies “make main.obj and add.obj before comparing their timestamps with project.bin.” In turn:

main.obj : main.c 

says “make main.c before comparing its timestamp with main.obj.” You can see that if main.c is newer than main.obj, main.obj will be rebuilt. Now main.obj will be newer than project.bin, causing project.bin to be rebuilt.

For more info, $man make

@kova