Against the Enterprise Architect as God (or not)

Against the Enterprise Architect as God (or not):
Over the last two years, I have been gaining experience on the Architecture side of the IT world, as a Technical Architect, as an Integration Architect and most recently as a Solution Architect.
I have some aspirations, which may or may not be realised, to gain experience as an Enterprise Architect in my next role.
It was therefore with some interest that I read this article, The enterprise architect’s Achilles heel, by Mark McDonald, in Technology Spectator, this morning.
I thought the article was very interesting because, having been reading a bunch of job adverts for EA roles, you would certainly get the feeling that the company was looking for a god-like figure as their new enterprise architect!!
In my experience, all the high-level architects I have worked with recently, did not have an omniscient view of the enterprise at all. In most cases, they had a rough idea of how things worked in any given area and had to ask questions in order to get a greater understanding. They would be the first to admit that they did not know everything.
In many meetings I attended, many of the attendees. who were working as solution and/or end-to-end architects, were often speaking about topics about which they only had the vaguest knowledge or understanding!
This was in a telecommunications company, which are by their very nature, extremely complex; so it is not really surprising to me that this was the case.
All enterprises are complex in their own way and I quite agree with the author that you cannot compare an enterprise to a plane or a building and, therefore, an enterprise which gives ultimate control to an enterprise architect, who is after all just human and therefore fallible, is probably setting itself up for problems down the line.
Read the whole thing, as they say!!

Your Cheques will become Invalid from Jan 1, 2013 – Find out WHY ?

Your Cheques will become Invalid from Jan 1, 2013 – Find out WHY ?:
It might happen that your cheque’s start bouncing and do not get accepted from Jan 1, 2013 . There is a new standard in banking called as Cheque Truncation System or CTS 2010 , which all the banks have to follow now. RBI has issued a circular telling all banks that they should only process and accept those cheques which follow CTS guidelines.

What is Cheque Truncation System or CTS ?

Its just a new improved structure for chqeues and a set of guidelines which will change the way cheques are being processed and cleared. Right now, all the cheques are sent directly physical to the other bank for clearance, but with this new Cheque Truncation System guidelines, the banks will send the digital version of cheques (read scanned image) to the other bank and the clearance will happen almost same day or very fast. Some of the features of CTS cheques would be

• It would have the wordings “please sign above this line” at right bottom

• All CTS-2010 cheques will have a watermark with the words “CTS INDIA”, which can be seen against a light

• A bank logo will be on cheque with a Ultra Violet Ink , which can be seen only under UV Scanners.

• The CTS 2010 enabled cheques will not allow any alterations. If there is any mistakes, the cheque will be invalid

• “payable at par at all branches of the bank in India” text will be at the bottom of all the cheques

• There will be IFSC and MICR code on the cheque

• You will have to sign the cheque will a darker ink, so that your signatures are valid for scanning.

If you look at these features, you can simply see that these are required for digital processing and once these Cheque Truncation System enabled cheques arrive , the whole banking system will start clearing the cheques in a must faster time. This will improve banking and save paper . Below is a sample of cheque which fulfil CTS criteria’s.

SBI has already told all its customers to get new cheques because all the old cheques will become invalid , In the same way HDFC bank and ICICI bank have also told their customers to get new cheque books.

What you must do ?

1. Replace your Post Dated Cheques
If you have given any post dated cheques to someone like for your home loan payments or for some other kind of payment, then its the time to replace them with fresh cheques else it will just bounce and you might have to pay the bounce charges
Deposit any Old Cheque now
At times, we accumulate old cheques and deposit them for clearing only after many days or weeks. If you have any cheque which is to be cleared, better deposit it and encash !
A lot of banks have also asked its customers to give return back the old invalid cheques at their branch and collect new cheques, not sure why they need old cheques , why cant they issue the new cheques directly ? Also note that the cheques will be sent to the last updated address only. Learn more about CTS here . I hope you are clear about Cheque Truncation System (CTS) and how your cheques will become invalid from Jan 1,2013

The greatest Google Mail feature you may not be using

The greatest Google Mail feature you may not be using:

There's a wonderfully powerful and subtle technique in Google Mail that can be used to enhance every reply you make to a mail: if you select an area of a message and then hit Reply only the selected text will be quoted in the response.
For example, here's an email I need to reply to:

If I simply hit Reply then the entire original message is quoted in the response:

But if I first select the piece that's important to me:

And then hit reply, only that part is in the response:

Use this to respond to just the right parts of a message and cut down those enormous chains of replies where the messages grow and grow and grow.

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About JAAGA ,Android Development …and Cycling.

 

Ok, no need go get confused. The two topics in the title are completely different things, different worlds, actually. Today I attended a quick Android newbies session by the brilliant Adnan Brar, who is at the moment , bootstrapping his own startup : Taskgram.  The 2 hour event was hosted at a totally cool and hip atmosphere , JAAGA.  The concept of JAAGA of being a creative area where people can just hangout and discuss ideas is what makes it unique.  This is similar to what Noisebridge is doing in the US, provide a platform to interact with like minded individuals.

I have been searching for some tutorials on Android app development on the net, and I came across the hackerspaces community. There is found two, just two spaces registered from Bangalore, India, one being JAAGA. Its embarrassing that the techie city has nothing to offer for hackers to get together. Anyway, I found that there was an android session coming up on Sunday, so that meant I had to getup earlier than my usual 12 noon !

Now app development, or any kind of development,for that matter, is something I can do perfectly on my own with google to guide me. But there is something different when people get together and exchange ideas and brainstorm.  That’s  what led me to search out some kind of training session, to meet like minded hackers wanting to learn/create something new. Today I met Adnaan, Mayank, Nipun and..Nikhil, I think .  The one common thread we had was that all of us were employed in good companies, but somehow the work were doing was not inspiring enough for the soul. I think it proves that its not just money that is important, we do need food for the hacker’s soul.

One of the guys turned up on his cool mountain bike, and he was also in fully cycling battle-gear ! Mayank is a certified bi-cycle nut, the moment you bring up the topic, you realise that you can’t just hold up to this guy’s passion for the wheels. He did give me some advice and tips and oodles of encouragement to take up bi-cycling myself, and I am seriously considering it.

Looking forward to the next coding session at JAAGA.Kudos to JAAGA for taking the initiative. I hope more such communities spring up in the garden city !

 

Anindya Mukherjee sets new record riding from Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn

An Indian mountaineer made the country proud yet again, not by setting any mountaineering record, but by setting up an exceptional 69 day long bicycleexpedition. The expedition came to an end on September 2nd 2012. Kolkata based Anindya Mukherjee completed this laborious cycle expedition from Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn, becoming the first Indian to accomplish this.

Anindya Mukherjee

What began as a conventional expedition took this extraordinary avatar and created history. Crossing a distance of about 5000km on a bicycle which was no joyride throughout. Mukherjee had the pluck to cover the lonely and deserted areas in his way totaling to be about two and a half months. The ride started as a tribute to Harold William Bil Tilman, but itself became an inspirational story. On Sunday morning when Mukherjee reached the base at Walvis Bay in Namibia, the moment was perhaps the best moment for the mountaineer so far. Anindya said, “I always wanted to do this expedition; it was my way of paying homage to Tilman. Dreams, I guess are not always easy to achieve but I’m happy that it has finally come true,”

Having started off with the journey from June 24, Mukherjee knew this isn’t going to be an easy thing. It was a test of his survival skills too. Mukherjee said, “As a professional mountaineer, I’ve scaled many such mountains, but this one’s unique. There were days when I had nothing to eat. It was a complete new terrain and I didn’t even know much about the African language. That was a big problem,”

Cycling past deserted Trans-Kalahari highway, Mukherjee were getting frequent thoughts of winding up the plans. He said, “The journey was exhausting at the same time deadly. I had to cross areas which were completely deserted. Thinking about those moments, still gets me goose bumps!”

Mukherjee a.k.a Raja, was the first Asian to have participated in the Mt Elbrus race in 2007.