Be strong in Basics - II

A person who could calculate standard deviation of first 100 prime numbers in just 2 minutes in college struggles to multiply 2 digit by 2 digit number now because of technology. Yes he is a quality coordinator of a company for the past two years. He has been using excel,calculator etc... now he has lost interest in numbers !!!

A person who could write an english essay without any spelling mistake , now he struggles to write a paragraph in notepad with out spell check.

Just try calculating numbers with out calculator or computer then we people will find the difficulties.Write a paragraph in notepad then we will find the difficulties and last but not least try to write two pages of a letter then we will find the difference in our handwriting from college days to now !!
(this is meant to people who had good handwriting , maths skill and english skills,
if we do not have please do not try unduly .. results may not be significant difference)

There are so many examples .. this post is because we develop so many skills through technology. Even One day if we do not have technology we struggle a lot in very basics which is much more important than the former..

I am not blaming technology .. we need to practise to calculate mental maths , grammatical english everyday 10 mins to exercise our basics. It will help in teaching our next generation. When we are asked to teach linear algebra or number theory to our son / daughter or relations that time we should not feel ashamed !!

Thanks
Jithu (One of the victims !! )

Be strong in basics !!!

Go back to School days and retrieve basics !!
http://ncertbooks.prashanthellina.com/
I am going through books from 9 th standard to 12 th standard. Excellent books. It reminds me my school days. I studied in state-board school. I concentrated more on mathematics than other subjects. When I was going through ‘properties of matter’
I was thinking for 15 min about those things.We have lots of subjects in college level to study.How does it matter to read school books. Yes it matters. Starting from attraction between the particles inside an atoms which decide solids , liquids , gases with respect to state and electrical conductor , heat conductor with respect to Electricity !! Yes I admire the way it was written. It paved me the path to think about electro-static force between two charged particles , hysteresis etc…
I am studying now in 9th standard science book 1st lesson . http://ncertbooks.prashanthellina.com/class_9.Science.Science/CHAP%201.pdf
I would suggest people go through basics , i.e to our school days and start reading. It will give you mental pleasure and we can feel today’s computer science(base from silicon) , wireless networks (electromagnetic waves using properties of waves ) and we can wonder how these fields are emerged and especially the curriculum our government keeps to step up us from basic science to computer science !!!
I learnt from my one of the favorite professors of IIIT Bangalore Dr.G N S Prasanna,MIT,US that If we are strong in Physics/science and Mathematics we can rule the technical world. He has more than 15 patents in all the fields from combinatorial game IChess to Magnetics in Robotics. I admire him !!
We should be strong in basics which is like a land and our engineering concepts are like buildings. In general land is more valuable than buildings !!

Some Personalities always are not satisfied !!

Disclaimers :- All characters and All names are imaginary

Ram and Krishna are two friends. Ram is a mediocre student and always is happy with what he gets. Krishna is an extra ordinary student who always seeks respect from others and most of the time he curses the situation.

Krishna :- Ram , what is your aim ?
Ram :- My aim is to become a Doctor.
Krishna :- What ?? Doctor , well good choice . In case if you do not Medical seat ??
Ram :- I will go for Bsc..
Krishna :- People respect professionals than an ordinary degree holder.
Ram :- What you are is not important How you are is important !!! BTW what is your aim ?
Krishna :- I want to be a Computer Scientist.
Ram :- Good choice !!

After final exam , Results are out ...

Ram scores 90 % and Krishna scored 97 % .
Krishna :- Medicine needs more than 98 % . That's why i told you take mathematics group. You miss Engineering now

Ram :- Yeah i know. I am going to take Bsc Phy in St.Joseph Arts college. What about you ??
Krishna :- I am going to take Electronics and Communication in NIT.
Ram :- You told you want to be a Computer Scientist.
Krishna :- See, Software is down. People do not respect Software people !! So I would take Telecommunication.
Ram :- What you are choosing is not important but how you are studying is !!
Krishna :- Enough !!

After 4 years , Ram completed his Bsc and has done 1 year NIIT course and placed in Infosys. Krishna completed his Electronics and Communication and placed in Infosys.

Both are undergoing training in Mysore Infosys Campus.

Ram :- Hey , Krishna , nice to meet you here .
Krishna :- I too feel the same.
Ram :- You have chosen Telecommunication and told software is down.
Krishna :- Yes , Nowadays people respect a person who has money so I have chosen Software !!

Ram joined as a tester in Chennai and Krishna joined as a Developer in Bangalore.

Krishna :- Ram , I have got into Development and i heard you got into Testing !! Oh i pity u, People do not respect Testers !! See me , I got into a good development project !!
Ram :- I will do my best as Tester. Nothing is bad.
Krishna :- Will meet you when i come to Chennai. If you come Bangalore you call me.



After 2.5 years

Ram becomes Test lead and he is sent to Infosys, US

People start asking Krishna that as a graduate of NIT Suratkal that too electonics and communication it is not good to work as a software engineer in infosys. So Krishna wants to be back to his domain (Electronics and Communication ) and applies for MS in Florida University. He gets MS in Wireless Communication.

After 5 years

Ram becomes Quality Engineer , Infosys
Krishna scores 4 pointer in MS and Krishna gets into CISCO,Bangalore product development department.

After 8 years

Ram resigns and joins CTS as Product Delivering Manager.
People start asking Krishna that why he is still in CISCO , since he has good background why can't he choose PhD.
Krishna feels PhD is more respectable so he joins PhD in IIIT Bangalore :)

After 15 years

Ram becomes a Quality Control Head of CTS , India
Krishna becomes a Research lead in Qualcomm. India.. He starts feeling working as a researcher in ISRO , HAL will be more respectable ...

After 20 years

Ram becomes Quality Department head of Asia Pacific , Wipro
Krishna becomes ISRO research head . Now he feels people respect College Professors than an ISRO scientist after 'Chandrayan' lost :)

After 25 years

Ram becomes Vice-President of WIPRO
Krishna now is in IIT Madras Professor. He enjoys and student and people respect him a lot !!

After 30 years

Ram becomes CEO of Wipro and Media starts telecasting him every day about the Software Industry.

Krishna's wife and Relative :- See Krishna , how your friend is coming in Television !! People respect him a lot !!

After 35 years

Krishna become dean in IIT Madras. Both Ram and Krishna meet in an occasion.

Ram :- Hi Krishna , nice to see you as a professor. The most respectable job.
Krishna :- Even i also thought like that , but you are coming in TVs , newspaper etc... But i am not respected well!!

Ram :- Hey , Do not always curse the situation . Respect is what we feel and not what others give. From the child hood i have been seeing you , you are always considering others view. Please do not do this.

We both are same. As a CEO I am giving jobs to 1000's of people and as a Prof. You are giving education to 1000's of people so both should be satisfied. Both are respectable jobs in case all the jobs are respectable if we do sincerely. So what you are doing is not important and how you are doing is important !!!

Krishna thought for a moment from the child hood , he studied in NIT , Devolper in Infosys , MS in Florida , CISCO Product Developer , PhD in IIIT B , Research in Qualcomm , Research Head in ISRO , Dean in IIT Madras ... Still he feels he is not in respectable position.He realized that he is always unhappy and feels he is not respected well in the society irrespective of where ever he is and what ever he is !!! He wants to Invite Ram to advice his students. Ram enters into the class and ask people what do they want to be .. One student says he wants to be a Computer Scientist . Ram asks him why ?? Student says 'People respect Computer Scientist than a Software Professional !!! “ Ram and Krishna laugh :)

Do we need Generalist or Specialist ?

Today when ever we come across a prof. or great people , some people say they are expert in Networks , some say they are expert robotics, some say they are expert in Software Architecture. But there are people who can not say that they are expert in a particular field. In simple English term Jack of all but master in none.

Let me tell about my friends, One who is highly talented and great mathematician , who always says that he wants to work in Digital Signal Processing and Communication kind of jobs eventhough he can do anything , he restricts himself to certain technologies and other friend who is not as highly talented as the former but he never restricts himself to certain domain or technology. He does whatever job given to him excellently. Who is better compare to these two ??? Both are best ofcourse, but relatively as an employer or third person i would prefer the later.If i am employer of high profile jobs in DSP or Communication i would prefer the former (This is rare case).

There are some universities which expect students to learn breadth of the engineering and technology.There are some universities which expect students to learn depth of the engineering and technology.

Breadth Knowledge :- Here it is defined as mediocre knowledge in all subjects. The main advantage to this is people can shift their profiles then and there whether it is good or not , i do not know. People can mix and compare the technologies of various subjects and produce some good results. The only problem is they can not be expert in any one of the subjects it may affect their growth in future.

Depth knowledge :- Here it is defined as a excellent about only one subject and its related. The main advantage is competition is very less and they can grow well. Sometime they are demanded for high profile jobs. The main disadvantage is if teh technology / domain goes down or not in well shape , it is difficult for these people to survive.

Over all Breadth knowledge can be reffered as Distributed Computing , Depth knowledge can be reffered as Centralized computing. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. Rest, can be filled by the readers ...

Stop calling brother / sister ...

In this blog, i disclaim all the examples are real. :)
Whenever we see a pair (ofcourse a boy and a girl) , we assume they are either true friends or lovers. But one interpretaion we missed. Thats they may be biological brother-sister !!. When we realize that this pair is sibbling then we will not comment.This is universal truth. Sometime people exploiting this. Yes, Today it has become a tradition that when a boy and a girl have intimate friendship, themselves call as brother-sister to feel comfortable. I do not know why !! Why can not a boy and a girl be a great friends.Please stop broadcasting that 'We are brothers and sisters'. Sometimes the most irritating thing is when they have 'lover' (I do not want to explicitly tell) kind of relationship ,they call themselves as Brother-Sister. I know , people who tell they have sibbling kind of relationship have weak heart to face the society. so they are doing these things to comfort themselves .One thing i will inform to these kind of pairs, whether you have true friendship or anything , people always view you in their perspective irrespective of your announcement Of course i respect people who have real brother-sister feelings !! But i request you .please do not mind others please carry on your relationships (True friendships) as it is. If you equate the true friendship as brother-sister relationship for others then it is an insult to both friendship as well as relationship !!!

Hardwork , Intelligence ,Smartness ,Focus proportion !!

Let I = intelligence
S = smartness
H = hard work
F = focus or concentration. Goal oriented
Given these parameters, surviving in this world or sustaining
Surviving
Su = f (I, S, H,F)
Su = a* I + b * S + c * H + d * F;
Where a + b + c + d = 1;
it means when a man wants to survive in this world , which is the right proportion to survive. I assume in this blog surviving = sustaining.
Consider somebody says a, b, c, d, e are all equal for a man to lead survive in all conditions.
Su = 0.25 I + 0.25 S + 0.25 H + 0.25 F;
Let us define each parameter
Intelligent: - Intelligent, here referred as raw talent which means no prior trained mind to work on a problem .An intelligent person ,here can also be defined as a person who has bare minimum knowledge about the concept but he is brilliant enough to partially solve the problem based on some logical deduction and analytical mind.
Smartness: - Smartness , This is also referred as having good networking skills etc..If a problem is given to him , first he finds who are all the person he can contact and complete the work without working hard and without using his intelligence much.( Intelligence means Pure intelligence, Hard work means pure hard work because getting work done also need bit intelligence  and bit hard work ) .(Some people define smartness as riding on others back :) )
Hard work: - Hard working person is referred as a person who are laborious. If a problem is given to him he sincerely starts working for hours and hours , finally completes using his little intelligence and smartness.
Focus: - Focused Person here referred to a person who concerns about the result. His focus is full of completion of work in time with minimum intelligence, smartness and hard work.
Readers can suggest and readers can give few more parameters and definitions.Even i would be happy if readers give the new definitions for what i consider as intelligent , hard work, smart and focus.

Are we doing RESEARCH ????

When I was supposed to do my research for my research elective course , i started with wireless networks which is my area of research. I started studying about wireless , suddenly went through electromagnetic waves , then i went through particles , then light waves, micro waves , x-rays , gamma rays etc.. and finally start analyzing about thought waves . Started thinking philosophically about out thought process. The day over !!
Next day i left that issue and started with networking , then transmission, reception etc.. I started with hardware related to transmitter , i read about network processor then started studying about micro processor which reminded me my BE 3rd year. Then i started going through instruction sets , registers etc.. Then i took Morris Mano for Digital Circuits and went through Registers, Flip flops etc.. In turn it directed me Basic electronics for BJT and Semiconductor Physics ... While going through Semiconductor Physics , started thinking about silicon molecules , proton,electron etc... i was thinking where was my wireless networks !!!
Research are generally classified into 3 broad categories

1. Researching on Good ideas
2. Researching on Implementing good ideas
3. Researching on studying the feasibility of idea

But according to one of teh researchers in an article mentioned that any great research should fall in above three categories and not one of teh three categories.

I realized - Research is not just searching for new ideas... it is a concentrated thinking process to produce a great idea as a result with input as all technical fundas .. !!!

I started working on wireless networks only. I derived some 2 pages derivation and wanted to experiment but i could not practically implement even 20 % of what i had done theoretically. Then i realized “Giving ideas are easier than implementing Ideas”. There are humongous amount of stress in research and it is very difficult to come up with idea + implementation . Research need not be only in technical side , people can do research in any field. My experience is with respect to technology. My sincere suggestion /request to people who are in the shadow of research “please do not say we are doing research , please tell we are trying to do research unless we are not implementing good idea ”. My friend Balakrishnan always says whenever i discuss with him a new idea , his first words are "Check whether is it practically possible or implementable ? , If not try to find out why can't we implement this". That time i always get irritated why he is always defending me but later i realized he is correct !!

Finally , last but not least there are 90 % of the people are normal in this world and 10 % of the people are living in their own world , in that 5 % are mad and 5 % are research people !!! I do want to live in my own world i don't know in which 5 % :)