Whatever... [Deepak Alur's Blog]: Deepak Alur's Blog @ Sun

They went fast and furious. My years at Sun that is...
I just completed 10 years at Sun! I can't believe it, but I did receive this recognition certificate to prove it. Too many good things to write about all these years and rarely a dull moment to talk about. I recall when I joined Sun, my (senior) colleagues told me stories of meeting Scott McNealy in person when he used to meet 10 years @ Sun folks annually. And I remember thinking, "Man, you been here 10 years?". And look who is talking now... I guess nowadays there are just too many folks to make this a rare occasion for Scott to meet all 10 year oldies around here.
In any case, it was a great 10 years for me and all thanks goes to the people (both Sun and our customers) I have worked with (where ever they are now) to make it a very memorable 10 years in my career.
And, thank you Sun!

Posted a few more episodes of Dick@Work last night to lighten your friday. Enjoy!

• RIF - Magic 8 Ball style
• Jack Ass Hires

Cartoon Comic

Sorry could not resist capturing this experience by DHN... Based on true stories and personal experiences... Real identities not revealed to protect the guilty!

October 17: Dick@Work is moved to its own site: http://www.dickatwork.com

Cartoon Comic

Based on true stories and personal experiences... Real identities not revealed to protect the guilty!

October 17: Dick@Work is moved to its own site: http://www.dickatwork.com

Cartoon Comic

Look what we found in a parking lot all alone, hungry and tired....it was a kitten. My daughter looked at us for a moment, and before I could say anything, my wife and daughter had already picked that little kitty up in their arms. So, what was I going to say. But, I had one big worry and she was a 60 pound boxer called Ally, already at home. We had rescued Ally over two years ago and she has adjusted well to the family. But, one thing I have learnt about Ally is, she...um...well...is not fond of cats. Not, not, not! I have seen her chase the neighborhood cats around. But, too late to think about it.! Because turns out we are already on our way home because the little fella is hungry and meowing all the way. The girls even started brainstorming about a name for the kitten and had one by the time we arrived home. We get inside and immediately Ally is all agitated to see what we brought home. What the!!! Who the!!! But, Why! Oh, No!!!!!!

So for the last two days, we have been telling my daughter that the kitty is going to the shelter. But, everytime the topic comes up, her tears start flowing instantly and incessantly. She claims that the kitty was God's gift for her birthday this week. How can I argue? So, I don't know how, but we are keeping the little critter. His new name is Smokey. He eats, sleeps, plays...much to the annoyance of Ally. He loves my daughter's room, especially the cushion on her chair. But, worst of all, he makes a cute little mean scowl whenever he sees Ally and Ally just goes b-e-s-e-r-k. Well, now we have to work on getting them to be friends! What are the odds of that happening? Who knows.

I never thought I would have a cat living with us. Never, never, never. Well, that's life.

Life Pets Dogs Kitten

I confess I did not plan it this way, but this is how it ended up. I had asked a question a while ago whether I should buy a new bike or fix my old one? Anyway, I decided to remodel my bicycle instead of buying a new one even though I was pretty tempted to get a new one. But, I had a lot of fun making over my bike during the 2 weekends. Basically, I had to fix my old bike's brakes (cost me nothing to do it with the tools and parts I already had) and add a new saddle cover that cost me $15. To get rid of the old look, I spray painted the old bike with a bright yellow color (cost me $10 for the paints) for the frame and metallic black for the wheel rims. I then designed and ordered a new set of decals (vinyl strickers - cost me around $30!) to re-brand my old bike into my very own custom bike. So here is introducing my own brand - Coorg Mountain Bikes!
Instead of fixing my old bike, if I had gone out and bought a new bike, I am sure I would have spent atleast $250 if not more.

So what did I do with the money I saved? After my earlier posting, Hurricane Katrina has struck the country hard. We all have to do our little parts. So, I put the money not spent buying a new bike and then some more into good use to help the victims of Katrina. A lot more is needed, so please consider giving, if you haven't already. Please, Please, Please! I did it with a bike, you can do it with your bike or something else. Fix. Save. Donate.

[For the curious: Mercara is the capital of Coorg & what can I say about Caffeine other than I love coffee and we grow it well in Coorg.]

Life Bike Hurricane Katrina

Since my return from India, my six-year old has been asking me to go bike riding with her. She just got a new bike last week and is really excited to ride with me around our neighborhood. But, I have this really old mountain bike (approx 10 years old) that is kind of broke. So it has been in this corner gathering dust in my garage for the last few years. Cut the long story short, I have to decide whether to fix this bike or to buy a new one. I lean towards buying a new one. It sounds more exciting, a new mountain bike... these days they come with fancy dual suspensions, great frames, cool colors/design, and all that jazz!
So, should i get a new bike or fix my old one ?
Leave me a comment, and I will post an update story on what I end up doing...

August 26th: I think I will fix my old bike. I have some cool design ideas about how I can refactor my old bike. This is gonna be my weekend project this week. Will post an update next week.

Life Bike

I was on a month long trip to India. Hence the silence on my blog. Just got back during the weekend and still kind of jetlagged.

While in India, I spent most of my time in my most favorite place in the world called Coorg. I doubt if people outside India know about it, but it is somewhat well known in India, well at least in the southern states. Coorg is for me the most beautiful place in the world, words can't describe it. I grew up as a little kid in Coorg and have lots of memories and experiences that I will carry with me always. Coorg is also known as Kodagu and is a small but precious district in the state of Karnataka, India. Coorg is well known for many things, but prominently for its brave soldiers, bold and beautiful women, wild life, mountains, honey, cardamom, black pepper and most of all Coffee! Yes, we grow great Coffee in India! I don't care what anyone thinks, Coorg coffee is way better than Columbian!

PS: I have lots of pictures, but don't have time to sort them out right now. Here are three random pictures from my trip to give you an idea of the greenery and scenery. If I get time, I will share in the future. No promises.

Got an email today from the ROME Logo contest folks that the voting is now open. I blogged earlier about my submission which you can see here. Check out the entries, register (takes a moment) and vote for your favorite logo. Hopefully, you like my entry. Let the best logo win!
Go here to view & vote.

I thought it would be fun to design a logo for ROME. So I could not resist participating in this all roads lead to Rome... er, I mean, All Feeds Lead To ROME logo contest. My entry got accepted!
My design builds on the idea of All Feeds Lead to ROME tag line on ROME Website. The arrow heads represent Feeds and the bullseye represents the target in ROME. I tried to keep it as simple and minimalistic as possible. It is designed so that it can be used for a variety of purposes (website, docs, clothing, etc.)

The show is about to get started.

It is 6 PM! The doors opened and crowd starts to flow in, or rather rush in. The security guards are yelling "Slow down, Ladies!" And the ladies giggle and act a little subdued. I can feel the excitement and energy building around the arena. The crowd quickly starts building in front of the stage. Earlier as I pulled my car into the Arrowhead Pond, I saw a lot of people camped out in the front. I heard they were here overnight. Then there is a small group of hardcore groupies waiting at the ramp where Bono and the rest of the band are scheduled to arrive later in the afternoon. I simply cannot believe this!

If only I knew back then...
Back in 1987, I bought my first U2 album Joshua Tree. It was back when we used to listen to music on tapes! That album became an instant favorite for me. I had never heard anything like that before. As a new U2 listener, Bono's unique piercing voice tore right into my already crowded brain and has been permanently lodged in there along with a few of my other favorite rocking voices. The lyrics were awesome, though some of it I could not really understand or relate to most of it having grown up in a small town back in India, where you were frowned upon if you listened to any music western, especially Rock music. And there I grew up when, my mom, started introducing western music and pop culture to us. I was 12 years old. She bought us a couple of tapes I don't even remember them anymore. And she found a guy who could get us a tabloid called The Sun which covered music and pop culture. Even today, I am amazed how resourceful my mom was in that small town. I still believe that we were the only subscriber to that magazine in the whole town. The first rock album i remember my mom bought us was Deep Purple's Made In Japan. What an album to start with for a kid who had never heard Rock music before! Since then, Smoke on the Water is permanently inscribed in my brain as I kept listening to the only rock album I ever had until I turned 15. I still had that tape when I graduated from my engineering school. And Smoke on the Water became the anthem song of my band at the school concerts, not that the audience cared, except for us and those other kids that were on pot. I cared because I was in the band. That seems like so long ago... Sorry, I digressed...Back to U2.

Am I really here? At the U2 concert?
Not only here, but working with the concert crew. We are all waiting at the crew box to do each of our parts. You see Sun is involved in this. Mary can tell you about that better than I can. I meet with the other crew members, who show me all the things they do to make the show successful. There is so much stuff. The amount of technology that goes in here is mind blowing.

The stadium is a bit more than half full now and it is almost 7 PM. The southern grunge rock band of 3 brothers and their cousin called Kings of Leon will be opening for U2. I have never heard their music before. I hear it is high energy and fast paced. Not sure if I will like it. The Kings of Leon take the stage and get the show off the ground. The music is loud, beats are fast and I can hardly make out the lyrics. I put my earplugs on and keep in on for most of their set. These earplugs don't block out the sound entirely, so i can still hear the muted music. The crowd seems supportive. It goes on for an hour. I know everyone is waiting. At least I am. Earlier that afternoon, I happened to see Bono and team rehearse. I just got the set list, looks like some changes were to the San Diego set. I love it because it has all my U2 favorites. The crowd is building up. The excitement is building. The anticipation is building. I can feel it. Kings of Leon finish their set. The crowd cheers for them. And then the crew begins resetting the stage. There is a lot of hustling and bustling. And a guy walks around stage holding The Edge's guitar checking and tuning. Crowd cheers. Crew is shuffling around on stage making last minute adjustments. The crowd is getting restless.

Awesome Set!
I look at the set list that was handed to me just before the show. This should be a good show. It has many of my U2 favorites. I hid the list as soon as I got it because people in the audience just walk up to you and ask for it. If I were them, I probably wouldn't do that, because I want and like to be surprised. But, I had to look at it to know what I have to do. I am here after all along with the crew. Would that make me a roadie too, Mary?

Edge is now in position on stage and so is the bassist. Quietly a tom-tom and cymbals have appeared on the right side walkway of the ellipse and Larry has started drumming on it. Bono is on the left side of the ellipse. The bass and drums are thumping and the crowd gets into the rhythm. And the concert is on to a great start. Bono and co. start belting out Love and Peace. I call my family at home and we can't hear each other. My son IMs me "Wow! That is LOUD!". I IM back, "Yep, they got gazillion watts pumping here, wanna keep listening?". And so, my family ends up listening to the concert on the tiny speakerphone over the next hour.

Bono moves on to Vertigo. I love the lighting on the stage.

The Lighting is brilliant!
They have 6 sections of LED lights called MMD. Each section has M number of LED bulbs arranged on N number of rope wires. Each LED bulb is uniquely addressable and you can send a signal to each bulb specifying the color and intensity. And the entire section of NxM number of bulbs are controlled like they are a screen of N x M pixels, where each pixel is an LED bulb. So you can project any bitmap image to this screen, of course they are not hi-res. You can see the red display of circles and helixes effect shown during one song.

There is also an overhead screen right above the stage that gets feed from 4 different cameras and each camera is focused on one band member. This offers a great close up view of each band member, but the screen is not really huge. But the concept is really nice because you catch a glimpse of each band member in action that they really suit the song. The band moves on effortlessly one hit after another.

The Show Goes On
City of Blinding Lights starts off and i love the guitar riff on it by EDGE, it reminds of some old imaginary Eastern Indian tune that, non-existent, but yet so familiar. The powerful lights on stage are synchronized with the music so when they light up, the lights are so bright and blinding. This makes for a fitting display for this song. And then we get to Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own. The mood is a little mellow. Bono is at his best. And at the right time, the LED screens light up with what looks like a AOL man in a white shirt and black pants, walking on. This looks really great and once again a fitting image sequence for this song. The crowd is loving every minute of it. And so we move on through the next hits. Sunday Bloody Sunday gets a really good treatment. Bullet the Blue Sky goes off fantastic with the screens displaying a blue F16 jet flying, twisting and turning over a skyline throughout the song. Mysterious Ways is as usual a delight. And the band is off the stage. The lights are still out. There is a huge cry from the crowd for an Encore. The band comes back and sing Pride and I get to hear my all time U2 favorite Where the Streets Have No Name.

Bono and The Pope

Look at the Stars!
The band is just about to start singing One. And this is the time for Bono's UNITE. Bono starts rallying the crowds! He asks everyone to pull out their cell phones. The crowd starts waving cell phones like lighters (click on the picture to see movie). He wants 1 Million americans to rally to his cause of fighting Debt, Aids and Trade for Africa. If you don't already know, Bono is a huge influencer and proponent of forgiving Debt to poor African nations that were siphoned off by bad corrupt regimes. You must visit DATA.org and learn about the debt crisis. I am always skeptical when a celebrity takes a stand on some social political issue. I felt the same earlier when I started seeing Bono take the stand that he did and I remember thinking - Bono, stick to singing please. But as I have learned more and more about him, and what he is trying to do, I have become a bigger fan than ever. This guy is not just any Rock Star. He is smart, intelligent, influential, and the president and world leaders take his calls. Which other Rock star can do that?

The End
After One, the band goes off stage for a second time. After a few minutes of crowd roars, they are back for the second encore. Is this a blast or what?!! When they sing Yahweh, I feel that it is a better rendition (accoustic/vocal) than the one on the CD which sounds more pop than rock. I like the live version a lot better. I hope someday they will release this version. And the end with "40", which I heard is the way U2 likes to end their concerts.

All in all, this was the best Rock concert I ever been to so far. I will remember this for a long long time! Thanks Bono! Thanks U2!