Pacific Passion
I travel through my thoughts,  As I walk down the streets,
Suddenly I halt, When a flash of memory beeps
I realize I’am in a distant land, far away from near and dear
Amidst the blowing wind and sand, creating a rear
I travel alone in the void, without any direction
Endless I toil, with all objections
Don’t know yet where the path takes me, never ending is my journey
Deep within lies a plea, to par the set boundary
Pacific Passion
If you happen to visit Stockholm the overnight cruise journey connecting two beautiful Scandinavian countries Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland is something you must not miss. Both these countries have the typical European look. It was the first time I had traveled by ship and I always thought the journeys would be quite boring as you get to see only the waters on all sides, contradictory to my perception I never thought I was traveling. As we entered, the crew welcomed and guided us to our cabins. We placed our baggage in the cabins and walked out to have a view of the cruise. The cruise ferries are well designed. A quick glance made me wonder how the massive buildings with 10+ floors with all facilities float on water with such high speed just as a paper boat. You get almost everything inside. There were shopping malls, restaurants and bars, casino games and several other activities organized for each age group that kills your time till you reach your destination. We sat spectating as the old couples and children danced, tried our luck with the casino games until all the Euros we got exchanged were swallowed slowly by the machine. We attended the music orchestras done some shopping in the malls, sat chit-chatting pulling each others leg by then it was already dawn, got ready took our baggage and landed beside the heaps of snow forming a fence separating the Baltic seas from the land at the Helsinki harbor. Despite of the unconditional weather we threw snow balls at each other. We visited the museums nearby, done some window shopping, for shopping Stockholm is a better place. Oops when you travel to a foreign country how can you return home without gifts & sweets. The ferry had all varieties of chocolates from Europe especially the famous ones from Switzerland.  Nokia Company is of a Finnish origin; we visited the Nokia manufactures at Helsinki and were back with mobiles in gift packs. By then the clock stuck 3 and it was time to get back to the cruise which was all set to leave at 4:00 PM. The view of the Scandinavian cities from the cruise was just mesmerizing. On my way back I spent time watching the beautiful small landscapes that passed through my eyes walking up the photographer in me. I tried clicking a few pictures. The time we traveled was January and the temperature was -18° Celsius, the unbearable cool breeze from the Baltic seas froze my hands as I clicked a few pictures, added to that my choosy nature when it comes to food made me survive with just water and a desert for the whole trip. A few pictures are added to the gallery, they are displayed at the end of this page.
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Pacific Passion
In the morning dew drops
Engrossing waking eyes to stop
In the silence of the breeze
The rhythm of the humming bees

In the calmness of the night
The reflection of the moon light
In the countless stars that shine
Amidst the darkness in haphazard line

In every tiny drop of rain
That seasons a harvest grain
In singing of flock of birds
A sequence of unknown words

In the pastures of the country side
The rise and fall of every tide
In a ray of light that glare
You paint a rainbow in the air

In every beam of the rising sun
You shower your blessings on loved ones
In every sprouting tender leaf
You send your message as relief

In the fragrance of the flowers
You spread the magic of your powers
God I thank you for everything
For this life & joy your creation brings
Pacific Passion
The mysteries in Deception Point are around NASA. As in all other Dan’s
books the characters in this book are also copies of encyclopedias. I
wonder from where he gets all smart people who solve big mysteries with
small clues. Rachel Sexton the daughter of a Presidential nominee an
intelligence agent is called to verify the authenticity of a meteoroid that
NASA discovers in the depths of the icy Arctic Ocean. The discovery proved
that there exists life on planets other than on earth as there was a fossil
of an insect buried on the rock. Everybody was proud of NASA’s victory.
Experts proved that the rock is extraterrestrial. Just before they are
about to share the results Michael Tolland a famous oceanographer and
Rachel discover a deadly deception in the discovery. In this novel Rachel
plays the role of Robert Langdon. Rachel and Michael go hunting for the
truth. Some of their friends who were involved in testing the authenticity
of the rock lose their lives in the trial. There are lots of twists as to
who is behind the plot at every turning point. The motive behind the plot
is fame and political gain. Towards the end all the missing piece of
information is intelligently arranged at the correct places. Rachel and
Michael cross all the big hurdles and finally put forth the truth before
the public. The genius brains with all the information they have about
outer space, earthly object, oceanology, blah blah blah decipher each code.
The book was quite thought provoking.
Pacific Passion
This book is woven around the Masons and Noetic Science. Dan tries to
explain that religious implications of miracles are possible through
Science. Science and religion are the same however religion teaches
mankind, Science does not teach one to be a good human being. Dan describes
Masons as not a secret society but a society with secrets. At certain
places I found the description quite scary with lots of skulls and bones.
Malakh the villain in this story also looked dangerous. The book mainly
talks of ancient wisdom as the hidden treasure and through science we are
rediscovering the lost knowledge that our ancestors already possessed. The
story is about one family “The Solomon’s” who are considered as one of the
wealthiest family. Solomon is a freemason with a 33rd degree. Katherine his
sister is a scientist and her area of study is Noetic science. She conducts
and documents a number of experiments in her highly sophisticated lab
presented by her brother. Through an experiment of a dying man she proves
that there exist soul and is different from the body and the soul has mass.
The illuminati in the story is a prodigal son of Solomon who accepts wealth
for wisdom and choices his own way of living, later realizes he has made a
wrong choice and kidnaps his father to gain access to the ancient wisdom.
In this trail he cuts the hand of his father and displays it in a museum.
Robert Langdon is called to decipher the symbols and Katherine joins him in
tracing her missing brother. There are a lot of references to religion,
numerology, ancient history, Noetic science and physics. Freemasonry is
highly explained. The whole story is around Washington DC. Dan describes
Washington as not just a capital city but a place with hidden secrets.
This book held more suspense, than the other books I read. I didn’t like
the way it ended. When the secrets were revealed there were quite ordinary
things, there was nothing much surprising when compared to the plot to
acquire and safeguard it from going into the wrong hands. First half was
quite interesting. The religious term sacrifice is well explained. This
book is the third in Robert Langdon Series a continuation of Da Vinci Code.
This book was initially named “The Solomon’s Key” and was later renamed to
“The Lost Symbol”.
Pacific Passion
Angels and Demons was the first book written by Dan Brown that has invoked
conspiracies within the Catholic Church. The story is featured around Rome
and the Vatican City and focuses more on explaining the relation between
science and religion. This book also begins with a murder investigation of
Leonardo Vetra who was a catholic priest with an interest in science.
Leonardo Vetra along with his adopted daughter works on a life changing
experiment Big Bang in which they create a substance called Anti Matter
(opposite of Matter) which could become a powerful weapon. I found the
existence of Anti Matter quite ridiculous; however it went well with the
story. Verta was killed by illuminati and the canister containing
antimatter was stolen to destroy the Vatican City followed by a treat to
kill the four cardinals of the church one by one who were the most eligible
persons to become the Pope. Robert Langdon is called up to solve the puzzle
and to stop the disaster. In this book also we have an intelligent women
Victoria who wants to avenge her fathers death. It’s a suspenseful thriller
with lots of mysteries. Solving the mysteries require expertise in Art,
Science, Religion, Symbology etc. They are a few characters who creep in on
time, share critical information that help deciphering the codes and moving
the story forward. The regular Dan’s style of writing novels only the
puzzles and situations differ each time. Forgot to mention we have the
police also following right from the beginning creating hindrances to
Landgon’s move. This is also a part of Dan’s style of writing.
Pacific Passion
Da Vinci Code was the first book of Dan Brown that I read. It’s a
continuation of Angels and Demons though I read it in the reverse order.
The book begins with a brutal murder investigation and ends revealing the
secret behind the Holy Grail. There is good suspense hidden in the series
of puzzles, deciphering one opens a door for the next one. As you reach the
end the book Dan explains how Leonardo Da Vinci has hidden a secret of the
ancient times in his art “The Last Supper” to pass the information to
future generation. Sophia the main female character in the story learns
about her family line. The book was well written however it didn’t just
reveal the murder mystery instead was based around divine mystery that had
questioned faith of the multitudes. Hence it was not received well by the
critics and there are an enormous controversies raised as the story is
against the Roman Catholic faith. I diplomatically overlooked the
conspiracies it carried and considered it just as another story book. As a
friction thriller I would definitely rate it high. There is a lot of
research and intelligence that has gone into writing this book, there are
enough suspense’s to hold the attention of the readers till the end. Right
from the Fibonacci series to the truth the Holy Grail carried, the
deciphering of the code was quite interesting.  The description of the
places was awesome. Some simple things were well portrayed, in one
incidence Vernet the President at Swiss Bank while trying to help Langdon
and Sophie disguising himself as a truck driver get caught because of an
expensive watch on his hand. “Do all drivers wear Rolexes?” This was the
question asked by the agent; there had been many such interesting
conversations throughout the book. It has good references to numerology,
ancient history, art and literature. I enjoyed reading it. According to me
it’s definitely an interesting friction however far from facts and the
mistake done is presenting a friction as fact that to on a topic concerning
divinity a faith prophesied by several millions of people, over thousands
of generations reasoning the book being extensively denounced.
Pacific Passion
Recently I have read the book Digital Fortress written by Dan Brown. When
its novels I always have a Go for thrillers and Dan Brown is been my all
time favorites. I have read 5 of his books Angels & Demons, Da Vinci Code,
Lost Symbol, Deception Point and Digital Fortress. Here’s a quick review
about Digital Fortress. I will come up with the reviews of the other books
as well.

Digital Fortress was written during the outbreak of encryption/decryption in digital technology. To summarize the story goes
this way; the US National Security Agency NSA develops a code-breaking
machine called TRANSLTR that could break any code. NSA does not reveal
TRANSLTR's existence to the public. "Who will guard the guards", Ensei
Tankado a former NSA employee who was displeased with NSA for its intrusion
in people’s private lives develops an unbreakable algorithm called Digital
Fortress. The code somehow bypasses the NSA security firewall and TRANSLTR
runs for hours trying to break the unbreakable code. Though this was kept
as a top secret, the code running in TRANSLTR for more than 12 hours did
create chaoses among a few staff and each one start spying to find out
what’s happening. There are enough suspense’s and new twist as to who is
behind the plot as you turn your pages.

Important characters in the story are Susan Fletcher, David Becker, and
Strathmore. Employing a language professional as a detective agent to find
the pass key has been quite different and interesting. To know the exact
struggles involved in searching the pass key, breaking the unbreakable
code, what the code for Digital Fortress was actually meant for, the threat
it carried to NSA etc you must read the book.

It’s an excellent techno-thriller and the mysteries would keep holding till
you reach the last page. Like all other books of Dan this one also has deciphering
of code. There are references to technologies especially the network
security, firewalls, encryption/decryption and a slight reference to
history Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A techy who loves thrillers would enjoy
reading this book.
Pacific Passion


Here’s a collection of some interesting facts about Steve Jobs and Apple
Inc.

-Steve Jobs was born to Abdulfattah John Jandali and Joanne Schieble (later
Simpson). He was a Syrian origin by birth who was adopted by Paul Jobs and
Clara Jobs.

-Steve’s biological sister, Mona Simpson, is the famous author who penned,
“Anywhere But Here” — a novel about Simpson’s relationship with her folks.
He had learnt a lot about his biological parents through his sister. He had
never got a chance to meet his biological sister until the age of 27.

-Steve never wanted to meet his biological father, though his father yearned
to meet his genius son.

-Steve was a Zen Buddhist and once thought about joining a monastery.

-Steve was a college dropout.

-He was a millionaire at the age of 25.

-He was offered an internship with Hewlett-Packard in his eight grade, As an
eight grader he called William Hewlett co-founder of HP to inquire about a
missing part from a frequency counter he was assembling. Hewlett reportedly
offered him a bag of parts and a summer internship.

-Steve Jobs first worked in an Apple Farm. When he decided to start his
business, he joked with his friends that if they did not suggest a name for
his company he will name it as ‘Apple Computers’. Obviously his friends
could not come out with a name and hence Steve named it as ‘Apple
Computers’.

-The apple logo bite/byte has a fitting reference for a tech company

-After Jobs and Wozniak founded the company with Ronald Wayne, the initial
Board of Directors decreed that every employee need to be issued a name
badge and an employee number based on their date of hire. Wozniak got
number one and Jobs was left with two. This made Steve unhappy. He made so
much of stink that the number two badge retired and was issued a new badge
with number zero.

-Steve was known for his aggressive personality and erratic management
style.

-Fortune magazine once wrote that Jobs was “considered one of Silicon
Valley’s leading egomaniacs.”

-Jobs was fired from his own company in an internal power struggle.

-He eventually stepped back as the interim CEO and served as the CEO till
August 2011.

-When Jobs resumed control as Apple’s CEO in 1997, he stopped all of its
philanthropic programs, saying, “Wait until we are profitable.”

-Even after rising to the top to become a $40-billion company, Apple still
doesn’t donate to charity.

-As the CEO of Apple, Steve earned $1 a year, 50 cents for attending the
meetings and 50 cents for his performance.

-On August 24th, 2011 Steve Jobs resigned his position as Chief Executive
Officer of Apple before his long battle with pancreatic cancer took his
life on October 5th 2011

-Jobs stake in Disney was twice as big as his stake in Apple

-He was the 110th richest person in the world when he died

-Today, Apple is the largest technology firm in the world, with annual
revenues of more than $60 billion
Pacific Passion
The novel “Only Time Will Tell” had killed two days of my time and here’s a
quick review of the book. The story revolves round two families, "The
Barringtons" and "The Cliftons" through some generations. It begins with
Harry Clifton’s, childhood around whom the entire story is bound who in the
beginning chapters says “I was told my father died in a war”. Time reveals
Harry, his own identity, How his father died? And the fact whether he was
his father or not? I am not going to put the entire summary as I wouldn't like
to reveal the suspense of the readers the author had hidden in his book. The
narrating art Jeffrey has used was quite impressive where each part of the
story was told by a different character without much of repetitiveness.
Each coming up with their point of view and also driving the story forward.
I loved the character of Old Jack throughout; all the other characters were
also equally good. Towards the end I felt the story ended abruptly, some of
the characters have gone missing, leaving the readers ambiguous on the
conclusion. I felt there should have been something more. This book is the
first part of “The Clifton Chronicles”. Hmm… need to wait for the next book
in this series.
Pacific Passion
Change is inevitable in this world especially when the talk is about technology; the world has experienced a rapid transformation. There is nothing astonishing if I put forth the transition I have witnessed in the digital world in a timeframe less than two decades. Black & White TV’s have got replaced with color ones, and now we have LCD’s. Radios and Tape recorders to walkman and walkmans to new iPods, Postal service & Telegram offices have become relatively free as most of the letters and information is been passed through emails, Telephones & Fax. Decades back having a computer of 256 MB RAM had been a talk in the town and now personal laptops with 8 or 16 GB RAM and Tablets are quite ordinary things. In schools and colleges blackboards have got replaced by projectors, lesson plan goes as presentations, I am not sure if there’s a trend of emailing the progress report cards to parents. Thank God this was not there when I was in school. The schools bags which carried huge text books got replaced with laptops. Rough notes are taken in Notepads, exams are written online and results are declared on spot. Joggings are done on Treadmills, Gossips are converted to online chats and emotions are sent as smileys. What’s on your mind goes as status on Facebook? Diaries are archived online in blogs. Group discussions happen on forums, shopping & shipping can be done sitting at home, money can be drawn anytime, anywhere. Meeting schedules and To Do’s go as reminders. A 3 year old is busy with computer games. Group conversations happen over Skype, project work is shared across location and firms. Acquiring the latest gadgets is become a fashion. Bills are paid online. No more queues and waiting. Two people sitting side by side talk on gtalk or instant messenger. Images are taken, uploaded and shared instantly. Beware your boss can spot you from his mobile on Google Earth if you try to escape from office (Google Earth features are advancing). Mobile is become a substitute for most of the electronic devices. The progress in technology had bought in several comforts to our lives at the same times they have made us lazier than never before. The joy of acquiring the latest gadget does not last long as by the time you show your friend and rejoice exploring the new features, the competitor is out with a better piece and the whole crowd around you has it. If the revolutionary speed of earth is 18.5 miles/sec wondering what would be the speed of technology revolution?
Pacific Passion
Thought could post a few details about cron for the benefit of some of my
friends. A cron is a utility used for scheduling jobs on unix environment.
It’s used to automate a system administrator’s work. If you are good at
writing a shell script you can automate most of the administration tasks
like archiving logs, checking for stuck threads, Exceptions and errors in
log files, Listener port status etc. Crontab is the configuration file that
specifies the shell commands to run periodically. Cron is set up as a
daemon in unix which constantly checks the /etc/crontab file and
/var/cron/tans directory for new crontab files. Crontab file stores
information about the task the cron is supposed to perform.
Each line in a crontab represents a job, the cron expression and the
command to execute. You can also instruct the cron to run a shell script at
specified time.

Crontab Syntax:*    *    *    *    *  command to be executed
┬    ┬    ┬    ┬    ┬
│    │    │    │    │
│    │    │    │    │
│    │    │    │    └───── day of week (0 - 7) (Sunday=0 or 7)
│    │    │    └────────── month (1 - 12)
│    │    └─────────────── day of month (1 - 31)
│    └──────────────────── hour (0 - 23)
└───────────────────────── minutes (0 - 59)
<> <> <>
Name    Mandatory Values    Special
 MinutesYes0-59* / , -
HoursYes0-23* / , -
Day of the MonthYes01/31/11* / , - ? L W
MonthYes1-12 or JAN - DEC* / , -
Day of the weekYes0-6 or SUN - SAT* / , - ? L #
YearNo1970-2099* / , -


Special characters and their meaning
  *     All values
  /     Repeat pattern like /2 for every 2 minutes or /10 for every 10
     minutes
  ,     Separate items eg “MON,WED,FRI"
  -    Used to specify range, Range specified is inclusive, Lists are also
     allowed.  A list is a set of numbers (or ranges) separated by commas,
     Eg: “1, 5,9” or “1-3, 8-11”
  ?    Used to omit the value
  L    Stand for Last
  W   Stands for Weekday (Mon ? Fri)
  #     is allowed for day of week. Allows specification like 2nd Friday
     of the month

Other Key Points:  - Blank Lines, Leading spaces and tabs are ignored
  - Lines beginning with pound sign (#) are considered as comments, Comments
     are not allowed on the same line of the command or environment
     variable. If it’s found on the same line they would be treated as
     part of command.
  - The specification of days can be made in two fields: month day and
     weekday. If both are specified in an entry, then cumulative meaning
     of both the entries will get executed
  - Names can also be used for the ``month'' and ``day of week'' fields.
     The first three letter of the day or month are used case doesn't
     matter.
  - The last field i.e 6th specifies the command to be run.  The rest of the
     line after the 5th field is considered as part of the command until a
     newline or % character is found. Percent-signs (%) in the command,
     unless escaped with backslash (\), will be changed into newline
     characters, and all data after the first % will be sent to the
     command as standard input.

     Eg:    ``30 4 1,30 * 4'' would cause a command to be run at  4:30 am
     on the 1st and 30th of each month, plus every Thursday.

Crontab Commands:export EDITOR=vi  To specify a editor to open crontab file.
crontab -e    Edit your crontab file, or create one if it doesn’t already
exist.
crontab -l      Display your crontab file.
crontab -r      Remove your crontab file.
crontab -u      To change other users crontab, Only privilleged users can use this
crontab -v      Display the last time you edited your crontab file.

Other Config FilesThe following two files play an important role:

1. /etc/cron.allow - If this file exists, your user id must me listed in order
  to have the privileges to run the cron jobs.

2. /etc/cron.deny - If the cron.allow file does not exist but the
  /etc/cron.deny file does exist, then your id must not be listed in the
  /etc/cron.deny file for you to run the cron jobs.

Environment Variables: SHELL is set to /bin/sh, and LOGNAME and HOME  are
set  from  the  /etc/passwd

By Defaults if MAILTO is defined (and non-empty), mail is sent to the
user/DL so named.   If MAILTO is defined but empty (MAILTO=""), no mail
would be sent.  Otherwise mail is sent to the owner of the crontab

If no email is required then end of the cron job line with the below
command
>/dev/null 2>&1
Pacific Passion
Google one of the fastest growing companies with an outstanding
contribution to the internet world has celebrated its 13th Birthday on
September 27th 2011.
It all started in 1995, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin Stanford computer
science grad students began collaborating on a search engine called
BackRub. In 1997 they thought BackRub needs a new name. After a
brainstorming discussion they decide to go for Google a Mathematical term
“Googol” which means a numeral, 1 followed by 100 zeros or 10 to the power
of hundred. The name reflects Google’s mission: “To organise the world’s
information and make it universally accessible and useful". In 1998,
August, Andy Bechtolsheim co-founder of Sun writes a check for $100,000 for
Google Inc. In September the same year Google sets up a workspace in Susan
Wojcicki‘s garage at 232 Santa Margarita, Menlo Park. On September 4th
Google files an incorporation in Califonia, shortly after which Larry Page
and Sergey Brin open a bank account in their newly established companies
name and deposit Andy Bechtolsheim‘s check. They hire Craig Silverstein as
their first employee; who was a fellow computer science graduate student at
Stanford.
Since it's start Google has been coming up with continuous innovations, making a conspicuous approach in the internet world that has
been advancing with rocket speed. The birthday date has been a topic of
debate as Google had filed incorporation on 4th September 1998, was
established on 7th September 1998 and Google.com domain was registered on
15th September. The dates did change a couple of times. As for Doodles, the
special logos have been around since Aug. 30, 1998. The first Doodle was
created when Page and Sergey Brin attended the Burning Man festival. The
first Google Doodle celebrating their birthday appeared on Sept. 27, 2002,
for their fourth birthday. Every year since then Google has been coming
with birthday-themed Google Doodles on 27th September as a remark of their
celebrations.

Pacific Passion
Whether to conquer
Or to redeem a suffering Younker
May be to condemn
Or could be to commence
A thought blossoms in ones heart
Sown deep within is the root for all start

Whether to construct or to destruct
Or to design a code of conduct
May be for progress
Or could be to regress
A thought blossoms in ones heart
Sown deep within is the root for all start

Whether to live a humble dream
Or to be among the Supreme’s
May be for peace
Or could be to cease
A thought blossoms in ones heart
Sown deep within is the root for all start

Whether to live in harmony
Or to put life in misery
May be to support
Or could be to oppose
A thought blossoms in ones heart
Sown deep within is the root for all start

Whether it is for hatred or love
Or a devotee of God above
May be a fanatic fight for cause
Or could be an atrocious attack over loss
A thought blossoms in ones heart
Sown deep within is the root for all start

Whether an apostle of revolution
Or a war by theoretical fusion
May be a scientific invention
Or could be a political convention
A thought blossoms in ones heart
Sown deep within is the root for all start
Pacific Passion
Most applications today go for Load Balancing Methodology to distribute
work across different servers, and to enhance continuity of business. Going
for a load balancing methodology increases system reliability by providing
redundancy. A load balancer is a software program that is listening on the
port and forwards the request to the server which responds to the load
balancer.  Mechanisms are available to forward request to backup servers in
cases of failure of the main server. There are a variety of scheduling
algorithms in place for distributing the work among different servers.


The diagram explains how a simple load balancing architecture looks like
and works.
The request from the client is forwarded to either of Server 1 or Server 2
whichever is relatively free. The decision is made by the load balancer
based on the algorithm. The algorithm could be as simple as random choice,
round robin or sophisticated based on the resource utilization and
performance. Suppose Server 1
fails, then there is a process set up to handle such situations “ON FAILURE
SWITCHOVER TO BACKUP SERVER”. The switchover happens automatically in most
times; In case it fails then the administrators do a manual switchover. The
Backup server acts as the main server and responds to the requests till the
main server is completely restored. This ensures continuity of business.
The failure of one of the servers is not a hindrance to progress or
production. A load balancing architecture could include more than 2 servers
as well based on business need.
Pacific Passion
An ERP is a combination of Business Management and Technology. The
functionality of different systems is integrated to form an ERP where the
individual applications share information and assist with the core
functionality of an enterprise as a whole. They put across the information
depicting the key performance index (KPI) of an organization. They help in
planning, design and decision making. The individual system could be
in-house built or third party supplier systems enabling sharing of required
data between the organization, vendors, customers and the suppliers.
Each organization has its own challenges to meet the growing customer
demands, market competitors and to deliver on time. On time delivery can be
achieved only if there is a proper plan in place. For example let us
consider a food industry; nobody buys the ingredients for the product years
in advance. They would definitely get wasted. At the same time they need to
anticipate the demand for the product for the coming cycle and should have
a margin to expand their sales. So for a food industry the average time
required to dispose an order could be one week, one month etc based on the
product. Now let’s consider a software product. I wonder where we would
have landed if we could develop new products over a week. Definitely the
turnaround time here is more and the plan is for a longer period. Likewise
they are several other factors that have to be taken into consideration; a
product may experience high sales during summer and low during winter,
there could be an internal dependency (Sales of one product, could have an
impact on the other) etc. An ERP model is a blending of Business logic's
with technology by integrating systems that share data for analysis to
arrive at appropriate conclusions. There may not be an exact match in the
predictions however a well implemented ERP gives the best fit to growing
business needs and reduce wastage.

ERP technology is divided into the below modules based on the business
purpose they serve
  FRM – Financial Resource Management
  MRP – Manufacturing Resource Planning
  CRM – Customer Relationship Management
  HRM – Human Resource Management
  SCM – Supply Chain Management

The diagram shows a rough sketch of MRP module as I have been considering
product manufacturing as an example in my Blog.
The referential system here holds the basic information (Product Names,
Suppliers, and their Contact Information etc) All other systems use this as
a base for fetching the basic information.  The planner holds the bill of
material or the recipe to build a product. The information provided by the
planner is substituted by the actual values when a customer places an
order, the forecast systems help to predict the upcoming sales/market
conditions; there are systems through which the third party suppliers and
vendors access information, place orders, assist with sales, distribution
and marketing. The model also includes systems which generate invoices,
send bills to customers and for making payments. The other modules (FRM,
SCM, CRM, HRM) also hold an integrated group of systems which assist with
the proper functioning of an enterprise.
Pacific Passion

Microsoft with their slogan “Be what’s next” is moving business to the
cloud with their new release of Office 365 on June 28th 2011. Recently this
is been a topic that is highly discussed, so thought why not take some time
out for it. Cloud computing considers service as a whole than as a product.
Shared resources, software’s and information are provided as a single
utility in a Cloud.  Office 365 is an enhancement over ‘Business
Productivity Suite (BPOS)’ which had been offering software as a service on
branded Microsoft applications. According to the reviews, this new cloud is
expected to greatly reduce the cost of IT with the easy to administer
features. A 30 day trail version is available for use which would assist in
arriving at a decision if you are looking for the actual results.

Office 365 is a collaboration of tools that rightly fits in any office
needs, needless to mention if it’s a small business or a professional or a
big multinational firm. Microsoft has come up with specific pricing to
address small, mid-sized and large firms with monthly subscription plans.

Office 365 includes
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Exchange Online
Microsoft SharePoint Online
Microsoft Lync Online
Giving a new opportunity to work and share ideas. Active Directory
Federation Services 2.0 with single sign-on is a new addition with Office
365. With Office 365 you can do anything from instant messaging, video
conferencing, file/work sharing, commenting, reviewing, email migrations,
website developments etc.  It addresses the security features and provides
hierarchical access control and restrictions to sensitive data.

Google Docs is also a similar product to Office 365 however Office 365 is
more in sync with the desktop clients and has better functionality. Google
Docs holds an edge in terms of interoperability. I am not going to get
deeper with the comparisons. Opting for a cloud provides a strategic
approach to cut down maintenance cost.
Pacific Passion
Onam is a harvest festival of Kerala, which falls in the first month of the
Malayalam calender Chingam(August -September). This festival depicts the
culture and tradition of Kerala. The story goes this way – There was a
Demon King Mahabali who ruled the world, during his reign Kerala witnessed
the Golden era. There was prosperity and happiness at every home. Lord
Indra became jealous of Mahabali as he held a high respect in the hearts of the
people. So Mahavishnu takes the form of Vamana, tricks him by asking for
three feet of land and sends him to Pathalam. To this day it is believed
that Mahabali visits every home on Onam to see his people and would return
happily only when there is joy, prosperity and celebrations.


In Kerala, the festival is celebrated for 10 days. Boat race, pookollams,
and several other traditional games brings the festive spirit in air. Being
bought up outside Kerala, I don't remember the celebrations there, or was
to young to have them registered in my memory. All thanks to my mother for
sharing her memories and the story behind Onam.


We do celebrate it here with a few malayalee families nearby, we brighten up the festival mood with Onapookkalams and gather for
an Onasadya on Thiruvonam (2nd day) . The specialty of Onasadya is, its served on banana leaves and
includes a number of dishes- papadam, sambhar, parippu curry, aviyal,
thoran (beans, cabbage), vallarika, ginger/mango pickles, curd, payasam,
banana chips, sarkarapurati are among the famous. It's an epitome to
celebrate Onam with a lunch served on banana leaf, no matter how rich one
is.  There's a lot of effort that goes into the
preparation of this simple, vegetarian, traditional meal.  It's time for me
to take a break, Onam is up in air. :):)


Onasamsakal to one and all.
Pacific Passion
Today with business continuity and customer focus as primary goals, the
need to identify and fix problems before a service interruption occurs has
increased. Manual checks are tedious, as most of your time goes with
identifying the issue, then concentrating on fixing.  We have several
monitoring tools in place which help us identify where a problem has
exactly occurred. They warn about data overflows, slowness, high
utilization etc in advance so that the engineers can fix it, lest there is
a business impact.


Sitescope is an agentless monitoring software used to monitor the
availability and performance of distributed IT infrastructures, including
servers, operating systems, network and Internet services, applications and
application components.
Sitescope collects data using an agentless data collection and can send
email alerts and generate reports which include tabular and graphical
performance comparisons at different timings. We have different types of
monitors which help identify and report issues not just the web links but
also any problems with databases, Application server, Hardware Problems,
Network issues, Errors within application logs, web transactions, files,
scripts, utilization of servers and resources, response times and
directories data size.

 Sitescope has client-server architecture with a web-browser allowing
 multi-user access. Users can set thresholds for specific characteristics
 and can be alerted for critical, error or warning conditions. Sitescope
 monitoring capacity is measured in points.

Setting up Sitescope for your project:
Firstly you need to understand your environment, below are some of
questions that will help you gather the requirements.
How would be the network connectivity between Sitescope servers and the applications? Proxies, Firewalls and routers can block communication.
Define the communication mechanism (HTTP, HTTPS, NetBios, Telnet)
Identify level of security for Sitescope to access information (administrator privileges, proxies, SSL, SSH)
Install the specific drivers or clients.
A remote server profile can be created defining permission's between the remote server and Sitescope server
Identify, what is that you want Sitescope to alert?
Once you have all answers in place you may proceed with the set-up and configure the alerts accordingly. Select the category (eg error if, warning if). The category will trigger the alerts. Apply further customization to get appropriate errors/warnings/reports.


I’ll be back with few other monitoring tools in my later posts.
Pacific Passion
I had been thinking about a Blog topic over the weekend then I came across
an Ad related to Android so thought why not write about it. 2009 had been a
make and break year for Android. It was during this time technology had
reached the hands of the multitude and people had started noticing the wonders the magic box in their hand carried.
Android is a mobile operating system used by mobile phones and a wide range
of other devices.
It is a free open source software and the preferred license is Apache
Software License 2.0. The key difference between Android and other smart
phone systems is that it is open for modification. It gives vendors the
opportunity to customize their products based on their own preferences.
HTC, Samsung, Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson have come up with smart phones
using this technology.
Android Market is an online store developed by Google for android devices
making it easier to explore the world of apps, games and information. This
is not an open source.

Technologies involved in Android development
Operating System: Linux kernel with middleware libraries and API’s written
in C
Application Framework: Java compatible libraries based on Apache Harmony, Dalvik Virtual Machine with just in time compilation to
run complied java code
Database: SQLLite a lightweight rational Database

Few highlights of the phones using Android are
   1. Voice Support
   2. Smart Virtual Keyboard
   3. Video recording, image uploading and sharing is faster with standard compliant browser,optimizing performance
   4. Supports a wide range of file formats audio/video/still media/Streaming media.
   5. Video Calling
   6. Multitasking
   7. Handset layouts and additional hardware support
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Pacific Passion
To catch the glimpse of the world
In a single fold
With events across the globe
Creating a weird probe

North East West and South
Who knows the truth?
Politics, Media, Arts & sports
Come as headlines in reports

Inflation a sudden tide
There is still no end to bribe
Recession is up in air
Industries in despair

Movies released in the town
Heaving the youth down
Politics another game
Played mainly for fame

Ads that boost of discount sales
Attracting masses in scales
Weather report show rising storms
Earthquakes and Tsunami’s are norms

This is in short the world we live
Common man has nothing to give
Only worries about the things around
Though can make no change on ground
Pacific Passion
Many a times we come across the name proxy server and firewall. Proxy
  servers are used as intermediary for requests from clients requesting
 resources from other servers. The advantage here is the remote machine
 hosting the information never comes in contact with your computer. All
communication is handled through the proxy server. When multiple resources
request for the same data, all requests are redirected to the proxy server
if the information is available in the cache it is sent without connecting
 to the main server all the time, hence its faster and also helps blocking
 irrelevant content and managing user requests easier. For example if an
organization wants to restrict access to certain sites, it easier to change
                    the settings in the proxy server.

Today with a lot of outsourcing and increase use of internet, the need for
data security has also increased. To transfer information from the intranet
  (LAN) to external network (WAN) and to ensure that only the required
information gets transferred across the network a DMZ (Demilitarized zone)
is created. This set up is also similar to the proxy. The computers within
 the DMZ send request to the hopping server (firewall or bridge) and the
hopping server send request to the client. At times they could be more than
one hopping servers. Each system holds only the address of the host to which
it should respond and the host to which it should forward the request. Ports
    are enabled only to transfer selected information. The source and
 destination IP is hidden. In this way a more secure connection is made,
 enabling working from different geographical locations and sharing the
piece of work among different organizations. DMZ is an additional layer of
security for sensitive data. The diagram below gives a rough sketch of how
                          data is transmitted.

Pacific Passion
Last month I happened to forget my mobile phone in office (nothing
astonishing). The stance this time was I was alone at home. Apart from for
communication, I use my phone to set up an alarm; I get a call when the Cab
arrives. I feed all the contact information on the phone. This literally
means I don’t have them in my head. I managed this crisis by sending
messages via email. Irony was that I couldn’t find a single alarm
clock in working condition that evening as they were been replaced by my
phone years back. I woke up at every half an hour or so to check the time
has not passed four, lest I miss the cab also. Being punctual had helped me
in getting the cab else traveling from one end of the city to the other on
my own would have screwed my day further.


I was just wondering how addicted we are to technology.
They play most roles in our lives, right from spell check, grammatical
errors in this Blog. With rice cookers, mixers and washing machines work at
home is still never ending and tiring. We need automobiles to travel even
the shortest distance. The search engines help with finding any
information. With the fast growing world, information is also growing.
There is a need to learn and adopt new technologies with each new
assignment at work. . Today we get lots of information from books,
magazines, televisions. With all these advancement in technologies and
their presence in every part and parcel of our lives we still find no time.
Not only that, they are the source for entertainment, communication and
work. We are totally handicapped without technology. I wonder how people
who have lived decades behind us had managed.

Have you ever dreamt a day in your life without technology?
Pacific Passion
While browsing I came across this article comparing the two social networking sites.
Pacific Passion
Today most of the sports use coin flipping for decision making. The coin is
tossed in the air to choose between the two alternatives. It’s chosen
because its simple, the outcome is unbiased, the probability of each
outcome is the same and it’s only very rare that the coin ends up in a pit
or on the edge. In such cases the coin is tossed again.
The practice has an ancient origin. Biblical history defines the chance
outcome as the expression of divine will and the well known example is how
Jonah was chosen to be thrown out of the boat. Jonah was chosen by God to
proclaim the judgment to the Nineveh. Jonah resists and tries to escape. He
goes to Joppa and boards a boat. God sends a great storm to the sea. The
captain decides there is someone in the boat whom God is not pleased with.
They randomly pick Jonah and he was cast out of the boat
to calm the sea. He was then swallowed by a whale, he realizes that he
cannot escape from God and prays for mercy.
Sometimes we use to this mechanism to solve small disputes among friends as
to who would do it first/last. It’s a chance outcome that doesn’t repeat.
When I call it a chance outcome I remember this famous joke where a student
tosses a coin to choose an answer at an examination and again tosses the
coin to verify and gets worried the answers don’t match.
For more information related to coin flipping refer:http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Coin+flipping
Pacific Passion
Recession these days is become as common as sunrise and sunset. Recently
read in the newspapers about the one that’s going to hit USA. Everyday
there are events that move the market up and down. Theres no clue when
a recession has actually started or ended, however if the market is
declining for a month or more it’s considered a recession. Recently we have
been hit by a double dip recession and the market has not stabilized after
that. Economist believes that the one that’s going to hit now is going to
be far worse than the previous ones. The below factors support their
analysis
  1. Inflation
  2. Share values have come down
  3. Oil prices rising
  4. Unemployment
  5. Mortgages
The effect in one commodity/sector has an impact on all commodities and
has a direct effect on the whole economy. With the current market scenario
nobody can actually predict when the market is going to rise or fall or
when it’s going to be stable. God alone knows. For those planning for
investments it’s a good time for you.
Pacific Passion
I was wandering with the clouds
Singing out loud
Over the mountains, valleys & plains
Across the empty lanes

And then I woke up with a frown
As my morning dreams drown
A momentary detachment from the world
While opening my eyes it whirled

The clock has stuck half past four
My travel ended in a core
Another day has just begun
In a mighty stun

Quickly realized I have to rush
Without making any fuss
Greet the new day with a smile
As it takes me through the miles

Get set on my feet
To make both ends meet
And then I can dwell in dreams
With radiating beams

Else the worries would ruin my sleep
And can put me down to weep
Only work can bring in reap
And can return joy in heap
Pacific Passion
Our family is a bit crazy about travelling and we usually plan a day outing when all the family members get together. It’s a break from the routine work for the older generation and a fun filled vacation for the younger ones.  Last summer we had planned for Kumarakom, located 16 km from Kottayam which is my hometown.  

Kumarakom is a very beautiful place and a famous tourist destination in Kerala. The quaint land is a cluster of islands on the vembanad kayal (lake). Before the day break we were all set for the adventures that lay ahead of us. The mesmerizing scenic beauty of the small rivers beside the thick green mountains, thousands of ducks floating along with the waters, the paddy fields, the green grass swaying along with the wind are some of the highlights.

Kumarakom is a home for a variety of flora and fauna and the best time to visit is December. Most of the bird lovers visit during this time to watch the birds migrating from different parts of the world.

It’s famous for boating. You can find a large variety of houseboats, not to the mention the famous Kettuvallams. The boat ride from Kumarakom to Pathiraamanal Island was very exciting. Flocks of birds, men collecting snails, greenery on the sides, small resorts, coconut trees lined up were some of the mind blowing sceneries. We spent about 2 hours on the island; the guide had showed us some rare variety of plants and a few birds.
Pathiraamanal is a lovely island in the lagoon. Pathiraamanal means ‘sands of night’.  It’s located amidst the Vembanad Lake.  We spent the morning there. Then we set to the bird sanctuary. Since it was summer and noon by the time we reached, we couldn’t watch the birds. We walked through the woods in search of some rare species all we could find were huge bats relaxing on the trees after their night shift. The sight of the green pastures and the country side itself fills in some unknown joy. It’s worth spending a day!
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Pacific Passion
While surfing I came across this book “Man’s Search For Meaning” written by Viktor Frankl. Inquisitive by the title I just started reading and let me tell you’ll it’s a wonderful book. The author who is a psychiatrist by profession writes his own experience in a concentration camp. He talks about the extreme suffering a Man can undergo in his life. He lost his entire family in the struggle and yet believes that there was something that life expected from him that kept him alive. The book has some beautiful quotes. People for no fault of theirs were imprisoned and treated as slaves and once they were found not fit to work they were sent to the gas chambers and burnt alive. They did not have the basic necessities of life like proper food, clothing and shelter. Yet, in the suffering they had a reason to be happy. They often imagined the world outside where they could have proper food, their dear ones and waited for the day to come when they were left free. Occasionally while working the author sees the image of his wife who had died in the prison, fading behind the dim lights of the sky . For the first time in his life he was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory."
He calls the life in the concentration camp as a "provisional existence." A man who could not see the end of his "provisional existence" was not able to aim at an ultimate goal in life.
He says a few people were able to attain human greatness even in their apparent worldly failure and death, an accomplishment which in ordinary circumstances they would never have achieved. They were people who had been going around consoling the others and giving them a hope that liberation is not far when their life’s were also in no way better.  The author says to the others the mediocre and the half-hearted, the words of Bismarck could be applied: "Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is overalready."

He wonderfully explains the meaning of life.
“Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, they differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. Thus it is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in this way. Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right. When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.”

In the camp they were prisoners who treated his own companions badly.  The prisoners found the lack of character in such men especially upsetting, while they were profoundly moved by the smallest kindness received from any of the guards. The author remembers how one day a foreman secretly gave him a piece of bread which he knew he must have saved from his breakfast ration. It was far more than the small piece of bread which moved him to tears at that time. It was the human "something" which this man also gave - the word and look which accompanied the gift.

He defines that there are two races of men in the world "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of "pure race" - and therefore one occasionally found a decent fellow among the camp guards. He wonderful put forth that freedom is the negative aspect the positive aspect of it is responsibility.

I just loved these quotes from the book.
 -> "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how," that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.”

->Live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now.

->The truth - that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.

-> Don't aim at success--the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.

-> Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Pacific Passion
July 10th, 2006 – 8:30 A.M a warm excitement on seeing a beautiful campus,
a presence of a known friend,  still a big question mark face, certificates
piled up in a file, it was a dream come true, yet some unknown nervousness
was drilling within. Yes, that was the day I started my career!!! A day
when a batch of 47 called Sapphire was formed. Sapphire was the training
room in the big campus where we spent most of the time. There was not a
much big change from college life, the friends, the usual lectures, the
fun in class. The only difference was we were paid. The training period
passed quickly with learning and loads of fun. Then the news about postings
comes as a nightmare. To a surprise most of us had to relocate to different
locations which we didn’t want. Added to that it was the first time that I
had to stay away from home. I did try my best to step back fortunately or
unfortunately I had to move to Pune and from there began another
adventurous journey. Now as I complete my 5 years, just spent a few moments
reflecting what this time actually meant. The various assignments, the
escalations/appreciation, the challenges at work, people around, staying
away from home all did teach me a lot. In these 5 years I have got
opportunities to meet/work with people from different parts of the world,
travel to different places, a few good friends, to confidently handle
situations and many more. The world around has changed, its now become a
smaller place.  Time does brings in a lot of changes in life. This is where
it took me.
Pacific Passion

Festivals, Birthday’s, Reunions, family get-togethers all play an important
part in one’s life. These moments are often captured for remembrance.
Photos are precious memories for the simple fact -Time once past do not
come back. Memories can go back whenever you see them. How does it sound to
express multiple emotions in a single picture with wordings expressing the
occasion? Amazing isn’t it??? I had been surfing for a Collage Maker
Software after my recent trip to my hometown and I had come across Picture
Collage Maker Pro. The software comes with predefined templates for all
important occasions that any person can treasure for life. You need not be
a techy to use this software nor is a special training required to use the
tool. All you need to do is download the software, select the template, add
your memories to it and just with a few mouse clicks your collage is ready.
Picture Collage Maker Pro can be additionally used for making Greeting
Cards, scrapbooks, Calendars, Poster, Photo Books etc.. A
15 day trial version can be downloaded from the website given below
http://www.picturecollagesoftware.com/Downloads/download.html
You can explore the options of creativity using the trial version. The
trial version has a water mark. The water mark is removed in the licensed
version. The license costs around $40. Licenses are available for personal
and commercial use.
You can add your creatively and make memories fabulous by using Picture
Collage Maker Pro. There are options available to customize collage by
adding wording, frames, masks, effects and clip-art.  You can as well
create collages spanning across multiple pages. You can shuffle images with
a single click. It's easy and fast. Images can be saved in BMP, JPG/JPEG,
GIF, PNG, and TGA formats and can be printed and emailed to friends and
relatives. Images can be cropped, rotated, re-sized, and freely arranged
within the collage. The program supports drag and drop image placements,
resizing and multilevel shadowing and clip-art decorations. Once
you start using the tool you won’t give it up. You can as well create your
templates.   It’s fun for any age group. Easily fits in all the day to day
needs. Not sure from a professional photographer’s point. It's not really very stunning... overall good

I have displayed below a few collages I have prepared using the trial version.

Pacific Passion
Most of the times my work starts at 6:00 AM. After checking the emails and
addressing the important items I take a break. A walk around the campus.
More than a health regime its a good exercise to overcome the
drowsiness of starting a day so early. At the day break, in the cool
breeze, what an amazing sight it is! to view the colorful pretty
butterflies, grasshoppers and bees hopping from one branch to another.
There are a lots of squirrels running here and there one behind the other
when they hear the noise of the nearing footsteps. There are a huge variety
of birds from small sparrows to peacocks. I can see them all singing,
dancing and playing on the lawns, poles, trees and roof top in their own
style. While the birds sing, the squirrels dance, the buzzing bees add a
rhythm. Some of them start working early like me. They are busy with
collecting twigs to build their nest in their tiny beaks, Some busy in
training their young ones flight. When its 8:00 AM. the pleasant atmosphere
with the singing of the birds and squirrels gets slowly replaced by the heavy
tampering footsteps, horns of the cars and bikes. The scorching sun comes
out burning the land. And then there is absolutely no clue left where these
sweet voices get lost and these tiny creatures get hidden.

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