Archive for July, 2005
Medication to treat anxiety and depression?
I strongly believe that anxiety and depression can be cured and is possible only by acting on the root cause, changing the thought process and behavior. There is nothing wrong with the people suffering from it. They just needed a break. Let them realize that. It is definitely possible by continuously nurturing positive thoughts and behavior by giving them support and incentives at every opportunity to indulge in an activity of their choice and help them succeed. Prescribing highly seductive drugs, which everybody knows work on sympoms for temporary relief but not on the root cause, to treat depression and anxiety is highly unethical and inhuman.
Six Sigma in software development
Six sigma methodologies help in achieving operational excellence in most of the transaction oriented business enviroments. However they are not as effective as the hype created in developing a new product and in building software.
Here is my posting in response to a query on “6S_SWSE · 6Sigma – Software & Systems Engineering†group on yahoo groups, about the effectiveness of Six Sigma methodologies in creating a new software product.
“Six Sigma processes like DMAIC can be used to achieve operational excellence; reduce waste, improve the existing process etc. If your organization is a traditional software services company or a BPO or pure transaction oriented, DMAIC would be of great benefit to the bottom line. All the projects that I could see and the initial literature on Six Sigma and Software development aimed at improving the organization’s software development process. Code review improvement, test coverage, effective testing etc. I would love to see some literature or projects which directly aimed at developing a new product in software development.
Let me put my inclination not to believe or failed to understand that six sigma as it is now would be of any benefit to design & develop a new software product in to the right context. As every one knows, Motorola stood out along with other majors like GE, Honeywell etc., to demonstrate ROI with six sigma. Being mybackground in Telecom, I am not aware of any better-in-the-stands application or cell phone from Motorola. Motorola was once on top in market share in producing cell phones. They have used Six sigma every where literally. Who can better vouch for it better than Motorola about the areas of application. May be it had a better ROI in quality of cell phones and operations. But it lost its market leadership, and it is now fighting to get back a decent 13% share in the market. Read the recent story in Business2.0 magazine about its fight back. Their focus has moved away from operational excellence, that six sigma brought them, and trying to design a better product. Razr and other new models from motorola that are helping in the fightback were completely conceived and produced under the new head and new facilities. They might have been manufactured in a six sigma manufacturing plant, but the design and development of the phone is not [as per the recent interview and magazine articles]. If I read between lines, it tells a different story about effectiveness of six sigma in developing a new product. Be it ROI or market share or a better product, I have not seen any convincing example of six sigma in NEW software PRODUCT development as such. I would love to see any example or literature in that areaâ€
Alternate Transports for Web Services
It is interesting to know that web services can be supported on a variety of transports other than HTTP. Microsoft’s Indigo support some of them ( HTTP, TCP and MSMQ) while other transports (SMTP, UDP, IBM MQ, In-process) can be integrated with the WSE framework. The important aspect of SOA, interoperability is however remain an issue as it takes time for all vendors to support any of these alternate transports.
In this excellent Article, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Choosing Alternate Transports for Web Services” by Simon Guest, Microsoft Corporation from The Architect Journal of July 2005, Simon Guest illustrates different scenarios that need an alternate transport to address the problem.
C++ in 2005 and The Design of C++0x
Recent articles by Bjarne Stroustrup
* C++ in 2005 by Bjarne Stroustrup, an extended Foreword added to the Japanese version of “Design and Evolution of C++”. Here is peek in to the sections of the document:
The Design and Evolution of C++
Where we are – 2005
Where we were – 1995-2004
Where we might be going – 2005-2014
* The Design of C++0x by Bjarne Stroustrup, published in C/C++ Users Journal in May 2005
Free online SS7 Parser
I found an excellent online SS7 Parser at http://www.ss7parser.com. The web site features sample messages for MTP3, ISUP and TCAP(AIN0.2 and SCCP Subsystem Mgmt). If you have binary dump of any message, you can parse that message too. The parser page also allows to edit the existing sample messages on the web page itself. The message editing page shows the byte number and current value and allows you edit the byte right next to it. It is a great aid to learn SS7 messages.
Only ANSI versions are supported at this point. “SS7parser.com supports most of Bellcore GR-246-CORE, GR-1299-CORE, and ANSI T1.113-1992″.
