Next Big Thing

So I was thinking about the contribution we make to this world, statistically / mathematically and this is what I was getting at.

Your Contribution to this world = ( The contribution of your product or service to this world ) / The number of people working on that product or service.
So now the question is , how do we figure out the contribution a product to this world. For my calculations, this is what I will assume.

(From here on, we will assume for practical purposes a service as equivalent to a product )

Independent Contribution of a product (Cp) = Amount of people the product is used by / ( No of users of product 1 + No of users of product 2 +… and so on ..)

Seems like a very tiny quantity doesnt it?

Well, but we for sure feel that certain products enable other products.. For example, electricity.. If electricity was not there a lot of current day luxuries would be missing isnt it? Even if we assume that around 5 Billion people make use of electricity in the world ( and also assuming that the population of the world is 6 Billion ) , electricities contribution to this world seems smaller.. But what if we add the numbers of all the products which are derived from electricity? For example, internet, bulbs, Google? Now adding all these to the contribution of electricity..

ω ( Electricity) = Cp ( Electricity) + Σ (ω(Product affected by Electricity) );

Under this new equation, you might already have observed that, if you are working on a product in a large company, the chance of the product making a contribution to this world goes up slightly but your contribution to this world goes down proportional to the number of people who are employed by your company. So the bigger your company, the smaller will be your contribution ( even for the product that is true right? ) .  While, if you are working alone on a product , the chances of the product making a significant contribution to this world goes down but since you are the only contributor to it, the denominator is 1 ( or if you are in a group of 2-3 people , then use the appropriate number ).

Now go ahead, figure out your contribution Well, enough ranting huh!

So I was thinking about paralllel processing… You know.. Just the kind of thing that I do while riding. Was wondering where and how the processing power will be increased in the future so that the semiconductor industry can adhere to “Moore’s Law“. Seemingly, over time, it is going to get more and more difficult for them to reduce the size of the processor. So i’m guessing they would start increasing the size. Confused?

Well, let me explain. I believe we have already seen the first generation of parallel processors. The current quad core, dual core are the first examples of it. But, lets say tomorrow, we get a 16 core processor ( I am assessing its already there? ). So now, are programs making use of this? Since most of the computer programs that are currently running are built for single processor systems, ofcourse they wont be making use of this feature.

But since we already know that tomorrows processors are going to be multi-processors, shouldn’t the programming languages anticipate that and provide constructs so that if ever such proccessors come up in the future, the programs should be able to make use of them?

We humans, have a dream. Atleast we programmers , I assume, do . Why cant we make the current computer as “smart” as the brain. So can we achieve the levels of a human brains ( or atleast a rats? ) with a huge multiprocessing system?

But then, writing  a system that can work in a multiprocessing environment is not a trivial task. The mental acumen required to do that is not trivial either. But the traits of humans is that we are not born geniuses. We learn. So if even one person in the world deciphers an easy way to do it, the rest of us will follow through. But then again, who will bell the cat , huh!!

I am a great fan of “thinking out of the box” and I saw a particular concept in this particular movie that seemed like totally out of the box.

I have heard that for us humans, the idea of exclusivity in partners is something that comes genetically. We dont like to share our partners with anyone ? Do we? Ofcourse there are a few individuals who are ok with the idea, but broadly, no one wishes to. We also see a lot of “fall-apart”s because of this. Also because there is this small tiny ingredient that will be missing in most relationships that make it incomplete and this chasm grows wider and wider over the years. Either the individuals involved in this relationship adapt to this “incompleteness” and adjust to it or go separate ways when the chasm becomes so wide that they wont be able to jump to the other side.

Now, in this movie too we see two characters having pretty much the same problem. We always perceive a relationship as constituting two people because that is how it has been through ages. But in this particular case, the three of them made it complete, though when the people increase the higher is the chance of any feud, it still was pretty cool and pretty calm while it lasted. Atleast that is what teh guy said at the end of that relationship. You would see, during the course of the movie, Maria Elena ( Penelope Cruz) telling Christina ( Scarlett Johannson), who is the current lover of Maria Elena’s ex-husband that she was the missing ingredient in their relationship. ??? You might wonder how she got that kind of thought. But that their relationship was not going on rocky waters when Christina was around is what she noticed instead of conspiring to get her ex-husband completely to herself. Amazing thought there and quite unique if you ask me.

I have seen that this kind of movies do not end with any particular conclusion. I noticed that the movie ended rather abruptly and I was swearing when it did, because it was such a nice presentation of thoughts and why they could not give a particular solution for the problem the characters were facing in the movie. But when I was lying on my bed thinking, I noticed that writer had left the movie as life leaves us. In the sense, there are no obvious or proper solutions for most of the human problems. For each solution, there are only choices and there are no absolute solutions.

So, finally there we are with yet another random musing from me, which doesnt lead to anything, which doesnt give you any solutions towards either life or technology. But if it has given you anything to think about, if it has lead you even one step ahead in your quest of understanding the intricacies of life, I would be glad. The movie did lead me further, so I thought of dedicating a blog entry for it. All the best.

I see that writing technical stuff takes a bit of forethought and structure more than writing random stuff like this. Its hard to get a proper flow of thoughts in those segments. Another issue being that, when you have the words flowing in your mind, you never have your laptop in front of you to write it down and click “post”.

So a more unstructured version of those same things ( and I hope my readers don’t mind it ) seems like a better option to me or atleast to my style of writing.

I have a few topics that I have started but have not been able to complete because of my inability to complete them in such a way that it is perfectly structured. So .. they still remain as just that.. “drafts”.

Hope I will be able to complete these things and post them here.

Topics Im planning to write about ( or rather complete ) :

Google Wave.

Flex and PhP Sessions.

Lets hope I get the inspiration to finish them off.

India is one of the most sought after destinations when it comes to software outsourcing. We are a very young country, in terms of its population. The Indian population is a population of youngsters , and as Nandan Nelikeni said, “There was an age when we were seeing this explosion in population as a bane, now this same thing has turned into a boon for us.” This being said, where are we in terms of progress? Where are we in terms of a name of our own? Is “Brand India” recognized around the world? These are some of the questions that we need to ask ourselves. Does simple patriotism , like flying the National Flag on the Independence Day and Republic Day suffice ? The map of the world is still agnostic about the existence of a country called India. I know a lot of us will come forward and flame with quotations of what we have done so far. But again, what we need to ask is, is that enough?

What was the last major contribution of India to the world? How many Nobel Physics laurets? Chemistry? Bio? For an ever growing population which is just putting its head above the poverty line , this might seem like a difficult ask. But no path , absolutely no path in this world is easy. So then how do we , collectively as a nation bring about this systemic change? We all celebrated the first Oscar ( a proper one! ) to an Indian when A R Rehman proudly recieved the two oscars for Slumdog Millionaire. But that is just the beginning. We have just entered the race, and the distance we need to cover in order to “truly be there” is huge and every one of us, who calls himself a true Indian, has to contribute , in order to win. We as a nation fought for our Independence and we won. Now we need to fight for a name in this world, and I’m sure we have the mettle to win this one too. So now, what do we have in order to succeed? What do we lack? What stops us from these goals? These are the first few questions that we need to ask ourselves and provide an answer, and in places where necessary, bring in a change.

It is my firm belief that , it is the people of the nation, who are the true assets of the country. Not just assets, they constitute the identity of the country. If you want to put a country on the international map, you need to put sufficient number of people, time and again on the international news. If you need to make it into the international news, you need to put something into peoples homes, into their lives, which becomes an itegral part of their life. When that “some – thing” becomes a part of peoples lives, along with it , its origins will reverberate in the minds of the people. Over the last century, there have been a few things that have made an impact of this magnitude, on the life of the masses. To quote a few, the radio, the telephone, the television , the computer, the internet,  mobile and  google are a few things that come to my mind. These are some of the products that have currently put America in the forefront , and has established it as a super power in this world. If we want to enjoy similiar benefits as the citizens of America, then we need to give something to this world. A product, an asset, which makes the world wonder how it survived so long without it!

What is stopping us:

We celebrated our 62nd year of Independence today. We have made progress, but is the progress enough? When people enjoy sudden richness, I have heard that , they become confused. They dont have an idea as to how to react to it, what to do with it. Is this the syndrome that is affecting most of the youth of India today? The father in an average middle class family was typically a government employee. The money that was earned thus, was sufficient to run a middle class family. For people who have seen this kind of a life, a sudden jump into high paying private sector jobs , might seem as sudden richness and people will tend to get confused. If we need to focus and bring about a change in the system, then we first need to bring about a change in ourselves. A government job, a middle class family to feed was the mantra of the 80’s and 90’s. But if we are planning to step into our fathers’ shoes, we need to think again.We all believe that the contribution of our parents in our life is in, them making us who we are today. But when we are seeing this, the most important aspect that we forget is that , they have provided us a strong platform to step onto and rule the world of tomorrow. Its a perspective shift and probably a lot many of us wont catch it at the first shot. My hope is that , this small snowball that I am throwing at you turns someday into an avalanche.

The Indian Mentality ( The pack rat ) :

Yes. This might sound derisive to some but if we look inside ourselves we will all see a pack rat within us. We are afflicted by a compulsive hoarding syndrome. This particular mentality or behaviour was acceptable earlier, since the time called for it. But what started as a necessity should not end up as an addiction. If you look back at your stash, you might find that what you have is enough to live a respectable life. In the fear of losing the standard of living of the future, we forget to live the present. In fear of losing what we already have, we try to dream less, we accept compromises. We have become a race that strictly , as a dogma , follows ” A bird in hand is better than two in the bush”.

Recognizing the Platform :

If the first step comes in shedding the “pack rat” mentality, then the second is in truly recognizing the platform that we are provided. Isaac Newton said “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants“. Right now, this platform is one such giant. If we have to go further, it is only by trusting this platform that we can dive into the future. Only when we see this, can we shed our shells of inhibition and fear and sperad our wings.

Build the attitude :

To achieve something different from the rest of the world, we will need one weapon that stands out from the rest ( Ok, I’m not talking about a BFG). It undoubtedly is the attitude. In order to make this change, we need to push this change into our habits, into our attitude . If we look long enough and hard enough, eventually we will find it. But the catch phrase here is “looking long enough and hard enough” which is an adjustment in the attitude that we need to inculcate. It is my belief that it is not sufficient to perspire to succeed, we also need to persevere. Now , you might be wondering, what is it that I am supposed to be looking loong and hard upon? Its ofcourse at the Next Big Thing. What is the next big thing? I really dont know. But surely one of us does. It is towards this goal that we should paddle towards. We spend a lot of our brain power at petty things. Petty fights, petty name callings, blaming the politicians etc. But what we forget is that, a revolution, is possible by every single one of us. All we need to do is look.

Break the vicious circle :

Until you get into a habit of success, you wont take bigger risks and until you take risks the lesser is your chance to succeed. It is in this vicious circle that we all get caught up into. Im not advocating that every one of us quit their jobs and go start looking for this Holy Grail. Sometimes it is not necessary to quit your job , to do something different. As I said earlier, all that is necessary is the right attitude. We can all make this a fun activity and if we really get ourselves involved , it becomes a wonderful dream world that you can get lost in.

Application is more important than accumulation :

We , as a nation  have grown to this extent because we are good at building our careers. Im sure that each one of us is highly qualified, highly intelligent and a knowledgeable being. This is one of the reasons why we are sought after by huge multinational companies. We are called as knowledge workers. Apart from this, the beauty lies in the fact that , India being such a diverse country, we come from different backgrounds. Someone is the son of a potter, weaver, banker, trader etc. We, being part of a family which deals with a particular trade, bring in with us our own experiences from that domain. The industry that we work on today , may be poles apart from the trade our fathers did. But , as I have told time and again, true advancement happens only when you can successfully merge the ideas and knowledge present in one field into another. Since we come from such diverse backgrounds , it should not be difficult for each one of us to apply the knowledge and experience that we bring in from our respective parental trades into the current scenario. This is where innovation happens. This is where lies the crux of the matter. Application of that knowledge in this field will work wonders in the future.

Being an employer :

We become soo accustomed to the idea of being an employee, that we totally forget the concept of being employers. This goes on to such an extent that we even forget to employ our own creativity and innovativeness. Satisfaction takes over. “I have done so much, I have earned soo much ” kind of stuff. Satisfaction comes from the root word “satis” which means “enough” and this satisfaction is a pretty dicey thing. Its a problem if you have too much of it and its going to be a problem if you have too less of it. There is always a balance that we need to strike when it comes to satisfaction. You have to be satisfied and content with what you already have, but that is not where it should stop. Your eyes should always try to see whats next and look and try to find ways to get it. One step at a time.

In conclusion , Im expecting the next big thing from India and I believe that we are well poised to achieve it, if we, as a collective lot put the efforts. A certain few of us have already started the ball rolling and in the future Im sure we will see even more joining the race. So lets just put our thoughts towards this singular goal ” How can I make a difference in this world? “

Sending an email from your backend php script is ( as explained in most of the blogs) not a trivial task.

I followed the tutorial in this blog post and everything worked fine for me.

Important things to note are :

1) That the port has to be 465. ( There is another thread going on about 587 or so, which did not work for me) .

2) That the url has to be “ssl://smtp.gmail.com”  ( if your mail is hosted under gmail ).

I am a total noob when it comes to linux , network and stuff like that. So , I had a slight bit of doubt if there was something different when they were asking for the “SMTP username” and “SMTP password”. But no, its plain and simple. Its your email id, like in youremailid@gmail.com and its password.

So feel free to use the gmail smtp servers.

The greatest distance any entrepreneur covers is the distance between an idea to its implementation. That is where we all fail, isnt it?