Prasanna

Python: Method overriding, How?

I have read Mark Pilgrim's Dive into Python several times, but this explanation on method overriding by Guido still puzzles me.

Guido, the original author of Python, explains method overriding this way: "Derived classes may override methods of their base classes. Because methods have no special privileges when calling other methods of the same object, a method of a base class that calls another method defined in the same base class, may in fact end up calling a method of a derived class that overrides it. (For C++ programmers: all methods in Python are effectively virtual.)" If that doesn't make sense to you (it confuses the hell out of me), feel free to ignore it. I just thought I'd pass it along.

Although I can interpret the statement, I still want to know HOW?

Posted at 03:36PM Apr 17, 2007 by prasanna in Tech  |  Comments[6]

My home page and my other blog

If somebody wants to check my stuff, please visit my home page www.pythonprasanna.com. The contents in it are not updated regularly, but they may definitely be useful. Long before I hosted my page in a free shell, but paid the price for not paying! When it was well ranked by Google and had good hits, the service disappeared. The moral is if you want to share useful content, you should pay :) BTW is blogs.sun.com my first appearance to blogging world? Not really.

Posted at 12:54AM Apr 15, 2007 by prasanna in Tech  |  Comments[13]

Greg Chappell and Indian Team

It was a kind of parting Greg Chappell would have never dreamt about nor the Indian players or the BCCI. I believe Greg did the right thing in resigning the job.

When players of sorts like Sachin or Anil Kumble express their displeasure for the coach, it's not wise to hang on. One of the interesting fact is Sachin was so focussed on Greg Chappell's remark against the seniors rather than commenting on his future. I am not saying that he should retire (it's hard to get another Sachin BTW), but a player of caliber like Sachin should not have made such a comment at a wrong time.

Anyway, Greg will be remembered for some of the best moments he had with the team like the series win in West Indies after a span of 35 years, record number of consecutive chases, etc.

Finally what is more worrying is the catastrophic changes which will be triggered if a sub-continent team gets eliminated from a World Cup, it virtually changes everything from a player level to the administration level (as if a new Government is formed after the elections!), which should not be the case. It's high time the storm stops its devastation and things get settled in for India so that the new season can kick off in a positive spirit.

Posted at 08:47PM Apr 04, 2007 by prasanna in Sports  |  Comments[9]

Real Java Howtos

Any issues in java? Visit here. Another online java helper (perhaps the one with clear and crisp solutions), very handy to me, hope it's useful to you too not only in solving your problems, but also in learning something new.

Posted at 08:28PM Apr 02, 2007 by prasanna in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Prediction: World Cup Semifinalists, Finalists and Winners

I will make a rough prediction on the teams which I expect to make it to the semis in this World cup.

Semifinalists:

Australia
New Zealand
South Africa
England

Finalists: Australia vs England (One day Ashes ?)

Winner: England?

Although people may have different opinions on this, for me England has it in them to lift the Cup (Did any team won the VB Series in Australia beating them 2 - 0 for the past 10 years?). England's win also will also be emotional because they lost three WC finals and as the country which introduced Cricket to the world and made many good cricketers (I mean foreign cricketers) through English county contracts, its time for us to back England to win the cup. I agree it will be a herculean task and needs a miracle of sorts for that to happen, but they can do it. Moreover since India is already out of the WC, its easy for me to expect England to win.

What if England does not make it? In this case I expect either NewZealand or South Africa to make it. Let this World cup be a maiden title for someone.

Posted at 08:24PM Apr 01, 2007 by prasanna in Sports  |  Comments[0]

Indian Cricket: The future

After the debacle at the World cup, the crestfallen cricketers arrived home and there were talks of who should retire, the next captain, coach etc. For me the answers are simple.

Retirement: Why should the present Cricketers retire if we don't have good replacements?

Coach: Greg Chappell should be retained. Changing the coach doesn't mean change of fortunes (the best example is Indian Hockey, BCCI be wary of it), instead Greg should be given more freedom in team selection, preparation of pitches, inducting young talent in the team, etc.

Captain: Rahul Dravid, though a good batsman is not as impressive as Captain as Sourav. But that doesn't mean he is not a good captain. Therefore Rahul Dravid should only be the Indian Test captain and for ODIs India needs an young and energetic leader like Yuvraj.

What next? Focus on winning the 20-20 World cup in South Africa in September.

Posted at 01:32PM Mar 30, 2007 by prasanna in Sports  |  Comments[2]

The King of Good times....

I got a chance to travel by Kingfisher Airlines some time back. I should say it was fantastic flying experience. I was really impressed with the pleasing smile of the cabin crew (perhaps one of the compulsive reasons to travel:)) and the way they approach guests. I had a pep talk with the co-pilot too after the flight landed and overall it was a great experience flying with them and it's one of the best projects of Kingfisher group. Vijay Mallya rocks!!!

Posted at 01:13PM Mar 30, 2007 by prasanna in Personal  |  Comments[0]

Welcome again to subcontinent's Insane passion for cricket.

This is what my cousin Mani has to say after India and Pak's painful defeats....

Its amazing to see how quickly things can change with one failure once again. Now everyone in India and Pakistan with sword in the hand ready to sack everyone who represented their respective countries in the World Cup.

Undoubtedly its a great achievement from Ireland. But does that by any stretch of imagination will mean Irish are better than Pakis in cricket? Same goes with the victory of Bangladesh over India. Because tomorrow if India loses to Srilanka, whatever that happens now to Pakistan, will happen to Indian team also.

Every former cricketer and critic will write all sorts of things and reasons. But frankly, Just take a pause and think from head and not heart, is it Inzamam or Rahul the reason for this despair? I certainly feel they are not.

I personally very strongly feel the format is the issue. Undoubtedly this format of pooling few teams and then super eights is a significant improvement over the past. But World cup after World cup this has proved its own weakness also. Zimbabwe entered with 4 points to Supersixes in 1999 and Kenya to Semis in 2003 due to countries rejecting to play cricket in some places due to security concerns. In the name of new format we missed some nice aspects of old World cup formats.

In one of the discussions with my cousins much much prior to World cup, this topic came up. That time my cousin was saying just one bad day with Bangladesh can ruin India's chances, which happened exactly as he feared. Hez not soothsayer, but his worry proved right. The reason why I said this now, just after World cup format has relevance.

Let me explain, had we included this nice supersix/eight concepts along with 2 matches with each team in the league phase, this anamoly could have been avoided. In earlier days till 1987 that was the case, we used to play 2 games with everyone in the pool. Had this been the case now, I am 100% confident that Pakistan would have bounced back, and probably we may not have lost Bob Woolmer. In a Hypothetical case if they lost both games again to Ireland well and good, they deserve to be thrown off.

If in the series following after the World cup, if Pakistan wins one such against Aussises all these people will diametrically take opposite direction and everyone will be singing hymn of their cricketers. Till then let everyone bash their heroes for the moment as anyways crowns are waiting there to beautify them again!!!.

Welcome again to subcontinent's Insane passion for cricket.

Mani

Posted at 12:48AM Mar 19, 2007 by prasanna in Sports  |  Comments[1]

Sun Tech Days in Hyderabad, India

Just saw the agenda for Sun Tech Days conference in Hyderabad. Even though I didn't get a chance to participate in it, I still got an oppurtunity to show case our work in IEC to Rich Green, Executive VP of Software, Sun Microsystems, Inc. It was a great moment to meet Rich and share some of our views with him, also the audience of Sun Tech Days would have witnessed his key note address there. There were a lot of technical stuff in the event ranging from java, javascript, JRuby, Solaris (openSolaris), Netbeans, Security, etc and I believe it should rank among the best technology conferences in India.

Posted at 12:38PM Feb 23, 2007 by prasanna in Sun  |  Comments[5]

Have you ever asked these questions....

How to find what you love to do?
How to Harness The Power of Positive Thinking?
How to Be Charming?
The Myth of Thinking Big
....Questions galore.

The answers for all such questions can be found here. An excellent repository of short, precise and concise lessons for self improvement.

Posted at 03:52PM Feb 21, 2007 by prasanna in Personal  |  Comments[3]

Aussies slump ....

How rarely can one see such a scorecard. Aus vs NZ, Feb 16 1007

Posted at 02:29PM Feb 16, 2007 by prasanna in Sports  |  Comments[0]

Life without Google

Just got a taste of working without Google. Had to ramp up on an implementation, got out of office, struck with a technical issue in home (unfortunately I didn't have a home connection, therefore no access to Google :)), looked helplessly for resource, finally things resumed back in office where Google came to rescue. This is the the kind of influence Google has on developers. Moral: Always stay connected to Google....

Posted at 01:24PM Jan 24, 2007 by prasanna in Personal  |  Comments[0]

Second quarter results - Back with Bang

Back to Profit. Second official good news in 2007.

Posted at 01:13PM Jan 24, 2007 by prasanna in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Sun in Tech's Hot Growth Companies

First official good news in 2007.

Posted at 09:03PM Jan 02, 2007 by prasanna in Sun  |  Comments[0]