Bye Bye TCS!!!!

I left my job in TCS on 24 June 2011. My biggest reasons of leaving the company are my stagnating career and my manager.


I have a lot of respect for the Tata group.They are a set of noble people with rock solid principles.In the times of all the corruption and all the ill-doings of the people around, this, I say is the mark of great people.But here is why I dont think it worked for me at TCS:



1) Career growth

I have been working in Classic ASP for the last 4 years 9 months.This isnt even close to being recent in terms of technology.My guess is that the project I am working on was the only one in this world which still has not moved out of this technology.

2) My Manager

It just doesn't get to him that its just not me, but my entire project hates him.Ideas are rebutted, sometimes rudely.He has a pretty narrow vision in terms of technology and only understands Microsoft stuff.Everything else has shortcomings, he has a list for it.The biggest reason he is such a eye sore is that he cannot stand to what he says.If you say to him that you said something like this, then "you are quoting him in the wrong context". Mr. Manager,I show you the first three fingers of my hand and ask you to read between the lines.

3) Bureaucracy

I resigned and also in parallel was looking for projects in Android in the company.One of the projects did offer me a role of a team leader which I happily accepted.All the folks who had the power to make a decision, took the decision that it is probably good to throw me out of the company than to offer me a new role or a project.Good for you guys, since you can very well afford a resource from outside the company who can work at a higher salary.Makes complete business sense!!!

4) Outdated IT systems and processes

These are systems built by engineers.There is no concern over usability, since all the people who will be using these systems will have to use them some how or the other or get a lower appraisal rating if they mess up.

I have time and again asked one simple question: " I use Facebook everyday, no one came and told me how to use it, why do I need to attend a training to learn how to create a simple Change Request process? "

People are expected to attend and work in office even after a training for 9 hours which happens at the other side of town! People choose to not attend those trainings.Anyways, trainings are most of the time just some presentations picked up from Google, and being presented because the person needs to fill the appraisal sheet that a certain number of trainings has been conducted.

People trained in C++ during Initial Learning Program are allocated to projects in ASP???? My gut feeling is allocations are decided on dice.


It is not that there isn't enough hue and cry in the organization on these issues.I just still don't see any positive story which negates what I just said.

Stock market prices and sheer employee strength, are they really indicators to a good company?Read a company's Vision, Mission and Values- If there is more customer that employee, its a sure sign of company which needs to be kept away from.Sure, money does matter, but not to me.

Rock Climbing in Goregoan

Had a fun and exhausting wall climbing session on an artificial wall in Nandadeep High School, Goregaon.

I got featured on hackaday

cellphone-charger-has-a-usb-port-forced-upon-it

HowTo- Attach a propellor on a TURNIGY 2204-14T 19g Outrunner

In my initial rounds of testing the setup for the RC electronics, I came across a real problem, how to securely attach the prop to the Outrunner motor.I looked around a lot of groups and websites, and after looking at a lot of pictures, have been able to attach the prop.

1) Remove one of the small concentric pieces that came with the prop, one that fits securely over the motor.







2) Push the piece you selected in step 1, into the prop.See image of original prop and one with the piece inserted.The one with the piece inserted has a smaller hole.In the image, the prop on the top has the piece inserted.





3) Place the prop on the motor, and use rubber bands.Tie the rubber band from one screw to the other , and the prop in between. Tie one on each side of the prop.

Happy flying!

*******Update*********

After some minutes of flying, the propeller just got flung around as the rubber bands snapped.Its a more firm hold with a cable tie.

The Case of the Bus Pirate

I returned back from the USA, and amongst other things , I got myself the Bus Pirate.

Here is what it looks like



What is it? Its a bus sniffer.It can sniff and execute arbitrary commands over buses like I2C and SPI, making prototyping very easy.

In itself it is very fragile, and needs some protective covering so that it does not fling all over the place. I saw a few laser cut acrylic cases on the web, and decided to build my own.This is how it looks





Here is a quick guide to building one, and I will post an instructable soon

1) Cut three rectangular pieces of acrylic of size 7.5 cms by 4.5 cms.The bus pirate is 5 cms by 3 cms. Match all edges, file them smooth, and while sandwiching them tight with a bench vise, drill four 3/16" holes at the corners.Make sure you keep enough space, at the edges, so that the acrylic remains intact at the edges.


2) Take the piece in the middle, and cut out a rectangular piece of the size of the bus pirate.

3) Take the topmost piece, and make rectangular slots at the places where the headers come out from the bus pirate.



4) Create slots where the USB mini connector attaches with the bus pirate.

At the end, you should have the three pieces looking like these.




5) You are almost done.Insert the screws in the holes you drilled at the corners, and then file the corners round.Then keep the bus pirate in the second piece and layer the third top piece over it, and tighten the screws.Make sure you do no crush any circuity while tightening the screws.

Here is the final result



Total cost of materials-Under 100 Rupees/$2.This took me about 4 hours to build, and it probably needs a lot more finishing, but it does the job very well.

New Idea

The Klann Linkage.Will make one.Will make the second, the third, the fourth.Will join these four in mechanical harmony together, and create a walking beast...

Flight Simulators

I have always been interested in flying actual airplanes remotely, and after being to the US, I ordered a foam plane called a Super Cub.After flying it, I realized that it is incredibly difficult to start flying an airplane right away.You need to be under the aegis of an experienced pilot to really learn how to fly.I could not find any good flying clubs around town, and it being winter, the winds were not on my side.After a lot of reading, I found that there are simulators which help you learn how to fly.They are priced at about $200 a piece, and as ever there are free options available.
How do they work? Here is what the blog post is about :)

1)You need to have either a 4 channel transmitter or above.I chose the Spektrum DX6i.This has port on which you connect a cable, and the transmitter emulates as a 4-Button, 4-Position Joystick.This cable costs around $14.
For the software, I used FMS.
The argument here is, this is still larger in cost than the pricey simulator, but in the simulator, I get a stupid dummy joystick(No transmitter), which simply is a box with 4 potentiometers, and an expensive software( the FMS is just about same in performance and appeal as the other).
Currently, I have not purchased the DX6i, but the Super Cub did come with its own 3 channel Tx, in reality, it has four channels...Hmm..Well I have hacked around an old joystick earlier, so it should not be a difficult task to do so now with the Super Cub's transmitter.Here are some snaps which confirm my idea.









Here is an image with the back cover removed.The 4 Yellow Boxes show the contacts of the potentiometers which I will use and emulate a 4 channel joystick on my computer.





I would need to solder some wires and make a nice hole in the transmitter, stick a port there, and attach a cable to my computer.Trouble is, my computer only has USB ports(I so hate the new laptops, they are not really hacker friendly).So would need some kind of a dongle there.

More in later posts!