Criticism!!

I take care of group who joined the process 3 months back! Prior to me taking charge, the guy who was handling them.... was not giving them enough feedbacks, which showed in their performance!! Their documentation was not upto the mark, technically they aren't sound yet, and most importantly, a couple of guys are making no effort to improve in the areas they lack!
When i took over, i started pointing out their mistakes (privately), hoping they would learn and would not repeat the mistake again!
But it turns out, a couple of them are not happy with the way i work! They do not like me pointing out their mistakes....
I saw of one of the guys passing a comment on me over the messenger.
This was the first time in my life that i had seen a "live" criticism of mine, so did not know how to react!
I took that guy to the smoking zone, asked him if he had a suggestion on how to point to mistakes, in a better way, that does not offend them. He had none to offer apart from saying that i should do it in a better way...
So, i guess, i am doing a good job 'cos he did not offer me a way. And i know, change is always painful BUT it is always for good!
Do you have any suggestions on i could have handled the situation better?
Leave me your comment pls!
Good nite!

Were you referred to my blog from Orkut!!

Hello All!!
Were you referred to my blog from Orkut? If yes, you are at the correct place.
Just reply to this post, with a detailed description of your problem, along with your e-mail address, so that i can get back to you with an action plan.
Regards,

Just like that!

It has been very hectic at work and i have not been able to devote much time to my blog. Hopefully, now i should be able to give it enough attention!
I have started reading Windows Internals again and i think, i will post daily, what i learn... for everyone's benefit! It will also help me refresh my memory and knowledge.
Post your comments if u have any issues regarding the Performance of your Windows Machine!

Evening with my Childhood Friend, Nitin Dubey!

I was writing my blog when the computer was powered off, accidentally, and i had to write my blog again! Was not aware that drafts are saved automatically!
My last blog asked about your opinion on what to drink to celebrate Dada and Yuvi's fantastic batting on Day 1! With no one writing a comment, i decided to drink Vodka, White Mischief!
One of my best friends since childhood, Nitin Dubey, decided to come down to Pune to visit me. (So nice of him!!)
We were in school together, then he moved to BHU varanasi and i came down to Pune, but we were always in touch... We started working together in GTL, a BPO.
In the last one year, his profile has undergone a dramatic change... First he left EXL, to join HSBC Kolkata as Quality Manager last April. In just 8 months, he got an offer from Reliance Money, to work as East zone Quality Manager, with a fantastic package.
And we both had started our career at the same time!!! hahaha.
Though i make decent money as well, i am very jealous of him! Why?
'Cos he will work in the daytime unlike me who has to slog in the night to eek out a living.
Man... I am jealous!!!

I picked him from Aundh at midnight, we drank the Vodka together... And then we went to Shivajinagar to have some Egg bhurji....
And there, purposely, we got into an altercation with a group... We were just too high and too excited! Trying to live the old days....
Dubeyji and i, have been involved in lots of fight, right since our school days, and our ex-Principal, Mr. Gowardhan Gupta would vouch for it. Hahahaha! Poor man! Don't know where is he these days.

My fren will leave for Mumbai on Monday morning and unfortunately, i will not be able to bid him goodbye, 'cos i will be at work then... (I told you i work in the night)

Writing this blog from work 'cos i don't have anything to do right now!!
Thanks for reading my blog and leaving your comments!

Weekend!

Saturday has been fantastic so far!

Woke up early at 8! Watched India-Pakistan Test match the whole day.

India were in early trouble courtesy some fine bowling by test debutant Yasir Arafat but Sourav "Dada" Ganguly and Yuvraj "Prince" Singh came to India's rescue.

Yuvi, in particular, was in scintillating form, scoring a glorious 168.

Day has been rocking ..

Waiting for the evening now.

I must celebrate for Sourav and Yuvraj today. What do i drink tonight?

Leave me your suggestions!

Cyber Attacks!

When i first got my Desktop connected to the Internet, i was very hesitant to check my bank accounts online. Was always worried that something inside my PC was wrong, someone might be viewing all that i was doing, someone would hack my password and transfer all my money!!
Hahaha!
But slowly, i came to terms and started my online activities.... and now i am fairly confident that my machine is not compromised.

Some suggestions for you to ensure your PC runs fine and is not compromised:

1) Update your machine whenever an update is available. Be it Microsoft Windows or Linux, no system is perfect. New flaws are constantly detected and then an update is made available for the same. Not updating your machine means those flaws still remain open, unworked upon which could be used by a hacker, sitting in some remote part of the world. Update is a must!!!!
2) Use a good Antivirus! No matter, how good an OS is, antivirus have an added capability of detecting threats lying in your machine! Just keeping an Antivirus would not be sufficient, you must update the virus database and signature and scan your system regularly to detect any intrusive items.
Avast Home Edition is a free AV that you can use! Has worked wonderfully so far, without any issues, on my machine. You might as well give it a shot.
3) One of the best practices is to avoid opening anything that you are not familiar with. (For e.g. an attachment in e-mail). You must avoid it if it has come from an unknown source.

4) Beware of any exe's, msi's that you download. They could install something without your knowledge.

5) Visit sites that are trusted and safe. Use the phishing filter that comes with IE7. Porn sites are something that you must avoid at all costs. Or else, search for some good quality sites that does not install any malicious softwares on your machine. :-) And let me know of that site....

No list can be exhaustive and my blog is no exception!
Probably, the only way to keep a machine safe is to Keep it chained, under strong locks, in a strong room, surrounded by strong Black Cat Commandoes!! But i guess, someone will still find a way to get into it.

Wish you Happy and Safe surfing!

Indian Cricket League!

I was watching a 20-20 match in ICL and to be pretty honest, i was very disappointed!

The kind of players, the outfield, commentators.... nothing interested me! Twice i sat to watch "Prince" Lara and he was out immediately.

I think it was way below the mark, as Mr. Subhash Chandra would have expected Team Kapil to do and be...



Anyways, the thing which still excites me is that the monopoly of BCCI is under challenge! So far, ICL, if not great, has been doing ok! But i will be much more interested to watch it next year, hoping ICL learns from the mistakes they are making this year!



It still takes a very brave man to take on BCCI, headed by a powerful politician!! Well done, Mr Chandra!



I have an idea.... let us have a separate Challenger match between the teams that wins ICL and IPL! What do you say?

Indo-Pak Cricket Series!

Watching this India Pakistan series gives me a sense of deja-vu!
I do not find the same intensity as in the yesteryear matches! Maybe, one reason could be the current Pakistan team which i do not rate very highly especially their bowling.
With Mohd. Asif missing from the line up, it looks pretty ordinary. Apart from Shoaib, none look menacing. But alas, Shoaib is not match fit! Kaneria is good not very threatening for Indian batsmen who are good enough to handle his spin. (Ask Warney)

Batting is brittle, but okay! I am sure they are missing Inzi badly. And Inzi is busy playing in ICL. Aah.. ICL reminds to write another post.. which i will shortly.

Windows Troubleshooting!

Since, this is what my job is, i thought, i will educate you all a little about the procedures that we follow to troubleshoot Windows Performance issues. Might be of help to you.

Step 1) Check if the issue is being caused by any third party software installed on the machine.
Start -> Run -> msconfig -> Services Tab -> Hide all MS services (at the bottom) -> Disable all third party services. Also, disable all Start Up Items from the Start Up tab.
This step would require a reboot of the machine to make sure that changes take effect.
A point of caution, this step does not disable the filter drivers for a 3rd party software. We might have to un-install a third party software completely (Add/Remove Programs) to do the same.

2) If the issue still persists, you need to check the behavior of the machine in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking. When the machine boots in either of the two modes, only the basic services start, giving us a fair indication of where the problem lies.

3) Get used to tools from Sysinternals.com. This site has some fantastic, very easy to use tools that you can use for basic troubleshooting. (Sysinternals has been brought by Microsoft now)
Some helpful tools are Process Monitor (Big brother of Task Manager), Filemon (Monitors all file related activities real time), Regmon (Real time registry related activities). Prcoess Monitor (Filemon + Regmon).

The next steps are issue specific. If you have any issues with your machine, feel free to e-mail me at v_2prajh@hotmail.com. I will try to help you out.
Good luck!

Saturday Night!!

Saturdays were reserved for drinking Mcdowell Rum, and this Saturday, as usual, was no different!
Woke up at 4 in the evening, surfed the net and then drank one full Rum with 2 other room mates! It was very hollow though...
Saturdays have lost their charm to me! I think, i should get married now.... Atleast, i will do something new!
Time to sleep.. have to work tomorrow (pity me, on a Sunday) and from Monday, i am in the graveyard shift!!
God Bless me!!