Eating your own Dog Food.

How often does this happen? I mean using your own application that is under the development phase. Reason: if you feel comfortable and convenient using it then only you can expect the same with your customers.

Our flagship product 'My Desire' (no, it’s not a porn site) is a Multitask/Multiproject management tool. And we have been using it for our own internal projects and task management. There's no lying when I say that MyD was developed using MyD.

Our intentions behind eating our own dog food: Use it yourself even if it has bugs and limited features and functionalities until it frustrates you to the extent that you have to fix it or live with it. In fact it’s a learning curve. We have so many 'Aha' moments using it for our daily use. Many features were added as we felt the necessity of those things (yes we listen to our customers and client too).

Many of the features which we (programmers and developers) thought cool were confused by our clients. e.g.: in Myd we previously had this feature of displaying the internal panel window in three stages, minimized, maximized and normal view. For developers, minimizing a panel would create enough space for other windows. However it was not the expected behavior for the normal users as they have seen very few of those kind of minimizing windows.

Back to the dog food. Now in MyD, we have various features which are the result of our own personal requirements that we felt necessary. Lately I accidently accepted a task that was assigned to a group of which I was a member of but the task wasn't of my domain (this is the task assigning functionality of MyD). Mistake. Now I can't undo it. That was one of the 'Aha' moments. We need the undo feature in the myd product.

Eating your own dog food indeed helps you to make you more aware of your product. Instead of client Mr. X complaining about the lack of the feature or a bug, it’s always good to find that within your team. So use your products to make it better.

Btw, when are we adding that 'undo' feature to MyD? .. Dev? .. Prashant? .. Klaus?

Funny. Very Very Funny.

When I think humor, I think Dilbert.



Pic from http://www.dilbert.com

This is something i am gonna do. Trek to Langtang.

May be I need about a week's time out for this trip. My fren Amit and Co. had been there some months back. As I browse through the pics, 'WOW'. This is the place I should be.

however this pics are from phalano.com















.. the rest of the pics will mine.

iRaft

I have never seen river so big. I have, but not as that matters to me. I mean it’s completely different to judge about the water volume and the water current 50 meters away and facing it as a front person in your raft. It’s a real thrill (I am sure I used this word more than 20 times on Saturday). At least I found it more thrilling than a Bungee jump.

We started early on Saturday afternoon. Our guide explained about all the commands and the precautions before we started in an accent neither a Nepali nor a foreigner could understand, nevertheless he was really good at his job. The commands made me feel I was on an army training ground. Forward, stop, hold, right back, left back, all back etc. were the rafting vocabulary for that day.
The river was more of calm at the point where we started. It felt good flowing with the waves down the river. Guys were happy, excited and on top of their voice. We were in 2 different rafts and doing everything to prove one is doing better than the other.

Everything was all good until we met a first major rapid (A part of a river where the current is very fast). Forward was the command in current execution when we met a large wave which took our raft in the air - took us totally out of control (at least me). I lost my control and my ore and my raft too.
Bang. I was on the water. The whole raft was above me and it was a nervous moment. Finally I found my head above the water. I had thought the whole raft was overturned and everybody was on water like me. But it was a relief to find later that I was the only one in the freezing water and my team was already on the rescue operation.
WWWWWoooo. It was an early warning call. Fortunately that was the only one.

Nevertheless, I retain the front spot once again after the fall. The rapids were frequent and it was an anxious moment every time we encountered any. Lady's delight, monsoon, Twin rock, upset etc were the famous rapids. What a name? Btw, I fell on the twin rock.

The most memorable rapid was the lady's delight. For more than 70 meters of wavy ride, rising waves were hitting my face every couple of seconds. The waves get bigger with each wave. Well done 'Lady's Delight'. It was a thrilling experience overcoming a massive wave and in no time getting ready for the next one. We made a perfect way through the rest of the rapids (thanks to our early wakeup call in twin rock.)

Upset was the deadliest of the rapids. But we did good enough to avoid the upset. The water was freezing cold and some guys have infact stopped rowing due to the excessive coldness.

After about 3 hours of adventure it was the time to get back to the banks. Worthy experience. Still felt proud to say that I did that for the first time in my life. It’s never too late.


Getting Ready


My Team


Rescue


Upset


Back to Banks


The final act

Gmat Fever

Sometimes I feel the gmat verbal is too hot to handle in the time period of just 75 mins. yes it is. Some paragraph are so complex and so confusingly written I need to look at the passage three times to get the idea.

However I got a very useful tip while browsing through the test magic forum. One of the succesful guys who scored above 700 (the G mark) wrote in his write up that reading the passage only once should be enough. If it doesn't work for you get used to it. I mean while you converse with people in your daily life do you ask them to repeat what they said 3 times before you get the idea? No. So let the case be the same with your verbal. Justified.

Adaptation ...

could be practised in as less as 2 weeks and that too in completely new place. When i say new, its new continent, new country, new culture and completely new people. It only took me less than two weeks to adapt completely to the place, weather and environment there. The place was seem so familiar after sometime that i could bike around as if i have been there for long. I knew the places nearby and the routes around. The local store, the restaurants, the lakes and everythings seems so "home" in short span of time. I was comfortable with the public transport too.

And the people? It seems like i have known them for years.

Talking Basics

My Europe trip has left me wondering about how people think differently (or rather how we have to think) on things that effect ours lives daily. Back home we usually face a daunting task of getting petroleum and gas as we like. We need to be in queue for hours to get our bike refueled and it might take a month to refuel your gas cylinder. Obviously they matter to us greatly in everyday life. So if things get better and we get those daily needs without much hassle then these things excite us. We talk about how we managed to remain without being frustrated during 9 hours a day load shed. We inform our friends and relatives that life's getting easier, or you can get those things at these particular places. If not we discuss how the fuel shortage problem has hit us hard again and how difficult and tiring it is to get to the office walking. We discuss about how long we waited in queue to get refuel or to what extent we went to get a bit of what we wanted. The monsoon is ending soon and the topic will now shift from fuel shortage to the daily load shed. We talk about these voids usually. It’s not a hobby it’s a necessity, you have to learn to survive. Wise men said "sorrow is divided when shared".

These talks are a total shock in Europe. infact people there have never ever imagined in their worst nightmare that getting your bike refueled will take you hours or you have to wait a month to get your cooking gas cylinder or you have to face 9 hours a day daily load shed. They haven't worried about those things ever and it’s likely that they won’t' have to in future too. Infact I didn't find anything they should be worried about. Perfect living condition, good income, healthy and happy people, clean and healthy surrounding, cheerful and friendly people, adequate resources, perfect weather etc...Did I say weather??Yes. The only thing I found them worrying is about the weather.

When I was there we have weekend’s plans to visit the Alps. But they were worried about our plan at Wednesdays as they already knew what the weather is is going to be in the weekends. It rained on both the weekends. They often discuss about what the weather is going to be in the next couple of days. I wouldn't have worried about the weather a bit. Back home in Nepal it would have been a trivial to worry about the weather. why would I worry about the weather, I have to get a new cooking gas cylinder, my fuel is going to be finished in a week's time and I don't have sufficient petrol for my bike too.

The people in Austria are ...

so very friendly.

"Lakure Bhanjyang Hike" in numbers

- 6; no of people on the hike
- 3; no of cameras we took
- 25; minutes it took us to get Lubhu bazar from Lagankhel
- 18; samosas we ate at Lubhu after the hike
- 5; leeches got me on the way
- 6; no of times i slipped on the rain affected muddy trail
- 4; no of shortcuts we took on our way up
- 2.5; hours we took to reach the peak
- 6; Wai Wai noodles; the only food we had during our hike

1 Great "Lakure Bhanjyang Hike"

okay. Let the pictures do the talking.

Just keep moving folks


Snack time. Let's get some energy finally [Phew]


Okay! ready for the macro shot?


All smiles at reaching the summit.


Our photo genius on the move.


... and this is what he came up with. lovely na?


Relax guys. Its a long way to the top.


This "close up" pic is really close sujan. hehe


They too believe in herd [lol]


The peaches taste fantastic.


Great view, isn't it?

All in all, a great day with the nature and the rain.

Rain? Bring it on.

I simply love rain. Being from pokhara and already used to almost every day's heavy downpour, some people get fed up with the rain; but not me.

I love the sound it makes; I really do. I can stay hours just observing rain.
Rain symbolize freshness, cleanliness, new beginning and encouragement for me.

To put it simple; Rain recharges me. So just bring it on.


From the window of my micro on the way to pkr


Observing rain from a nearby bhatti

Rain drops gets bigger before they fall

A rain drenched flower; on our way to Kakani

Where happiness comes in small packages

The great thing about being a citizen of Nepal is that you can feel really great on some trivial things; it’s close to that at least. Today was a special day. Couple of days ago the petroleum price was hiked almost 25% and suddenly the petroleum supply was normal. Suddenly the never ending queue for refueling vanished and I almost forgot I used to be there for about one and half hour every time I had to refuel. It’s almost a dream come true i.e., being able to get the gas without waiting much, without being in a war to push yourself (including your bike) up in the queue [Sigh]. The worst nightmare is to be informed about the unavailability of fuel after being in the queue for more than an hour.

But I am going to forget all that today; I got the fuel. No matter how many dreams you own it’s always when any of them gets through. This is something like a dream come reality. It’s a crazy thought but we live this way. I told you before, here happiness comes in small packages. It happens only in Nepal. Cheers!

Talking football

Early Saturday morning is a “wow”. I feel like a real professional footballer getting mentally and physically ready for the game. I play with my friends for a team ‘D2’. Sometimes we play against some corporate teams. At other times we practice with each other and that’s even much fun. We play till our last energy drop, just able to drag ourselves to our apartments.

At evenings the same Saturday, I became a football analyst. I will be with my guys watching the Barclay’s English premier league games of my favorite team Liverpool fc and the rest. We analyze scores, table, fixtures, current form, team formation and transfers like they really matter us. Some of my friends are close to real football analysts. It’s always interesting to know their minds. We agree sometimes, argue at most of the times. We have our comments highly prejudiced by our supporting teams.
Not just on Saturday, but football gets on our top list of chat topics throughout the week. No site of gossips gets unnoticed and guys have all the details of clubs, players and their on and off field records and rumors and news. It’s surprising to hear someone say Lampard’s mom is suffering from pneumonia. Excuse me.

We compete not only on the real field with real football guys. Guys are also in managing clubs. Managing their fantasy teams and competing with each other in a league. It’s a virtual world, but a real pleasure. Sometime their talks make me feel they are the managers in real. They talk about buying, selling, offloading players, game formation, choice of captain, the starting eleven and all other things.
It’s just like football is in our blood. It feels good that I am able to be part of that circle. No matter what part of my life I am at the moment, the love for football has been always the same. Perhaps even getting better.


I sometimes wonder why I am so obsessed with this beautiful game. I wonder being a software developer why so much of my time involves football which has no role to play in my job or work. But on a cool note we play different roles during our lives, let football be one, isn’t it?

Jump of a lifetime

“Imagine a bridge over a 160 meter tropical gorge with the Bhote Kosi, one of Nepal’s wildest rivers, raging below… NOW JUMP!” Verbatim – Last Resort bungee jump


I had read that couple of times a day before the jump and that was nothing scary compared to what was going to happen the next morning. It was all laughter and it was all ok (not that much relaxing) as friends were tied and they jumped till the man on the hot seat was me. The cameraman asked me for some words (guys later commented that he asked for my last words, lol) and the bungee master was doing all the preparation for my jump. I was still ok and all smiles (I noticed that later in the video). Well I was ready and really excited and a really scared. Then I was on the edge of the bridge and suddenly I was overwhelmed by all the fears and dangers the jump possesses. It was a no conscious moment. I had nothing in my mind. I forgot I was here to have fun; I was tied to the rope and all the stuffs that had matter me for couple of days before getting there. It was definitely something very out of the box (outside my comfort zone). I faintly heard the words jump (I don't know from where) and it felt that those words were really powerful that made me thrust my body forward. I admit the actions were involuntary (unlike shown in the video) but it seems I was really in control (that is a true in my second jump).



Well I was in the air free falling. I can see the hills on my front and the wild river beneath me and the gust of wind passing me. The sound was scary. I was thoughtless and I was blank. No self control and nothing in my mind (void). Those 6 seconds seemed to last really long and at times it felt the river was getting nearer to me.

My thoughtlessness disappeared with the jerk I got from the rope as it pulled me up again. Then only the sound came out of me and I feel so alive for the first time in my life. It felt as if I was in the purgatory for some time and I got my life again. I lost the sense of place, direction and time and I felt that I have been alienated. The energy level was ever increasing.

The jump came to an end. And everything became clear and I regained almost everything from my state of thoughtlessness. I could see the bridge, the bungee guys and friends up there and hear the sound of flowing river again. My energy level was still high. I found myself running (I noticed later) but later relaxed as the road got steeper.
Well it was an experience of a kind. Free falling, entering the state of thoughtlessness, being in the wild, regaining senses and having fun out of all these things. It was indeed a jump of a lifetime.

After a 35 minutes’ walk to the place from where I had made the jump I found the jump was far less scary than climbing the way back.