Rains in Oct

Its been raining heavily the past few days due to a low depression in the Bay of Bengal. These rains are a welcome relief from the heat for the Chennai folks. My dad used to say Chennai is a city with 3 seasons - Hot, Hotter, Hottest. Y'day a friend of mine was checking the historic temperatures in the month of Oct and it has gone to a min of 16 deg C. Can you believe it? Well though it was in the year 1889!

Well we also stumbled upon the Satellite view in Google maps with Weather option ticket. It gave us a almost real time view of the storm clouds. Attached is the pic here. Isn't it cool?

Well the rains are good but except for the problems it brought it due to mismanagement by the Govt. Roads have gone altogether, even in a highway such as OMR. The stretch from Kelambakkam to SIPCOT (IT park) is bad and getting worse with the first heavy rains. All the patch work is done, there are now holes in the center of the road as big as 1 feet deep and 2 feet wide. In addition to this, the water logs on the road, it never drains out in few places. Especially near Hindustan Engg. College in Padur. Some times these water logging act as a camouflage for the pot holes to ambush the drivers. God help the drivers only he can take them home safely. Btw, I will try to take some pics if I can in the next few days (not when I am the one who is driving)

Another key difficulty my friends in TCS are facing, with the rains coming down, is the continuous leaks in the roof of the buses provided by the company for transportation to work. Due to the work place being as long as 40+ Kms away from many associates take the company bus (of course paid). But to sit in a bus with a leak on 10-20% of the seats is a nightmare. Wish they could have some alternatives or someone responsible to help them.

Thats all from me now. Heading back.

Back Home

I am back in India now, and its going to be fun here. But before the fun begins, I will need to adapt once again to the way of life here.

10 things about India that I noticed in the last few weeks that I deeply regret:

1. Hospitals do not treat accident victims with compassion and urgency, they first want a police case before they admit or begin treatment.
2. Hit and Run happens a lot, and police does not do much about it. Neither are ads or campaigns to discipline and educate drivers
3. Black money does exists, I was looking for a new home and two buys were looking for cash and not money transfer or checks. Even the property would be undervalued, I turned away from them since a friend of mine had already warned me about such things.
4. Every one and every transport is late, appointments are difficult to honor since traffic is always slow, 10 kms could take 45 minutes to cover at times.
5. Hugh wait time to buy automobiles or scooters or motor cycles. Dealers always give anything between 30 days to 3 mos for models that sell well.
6. You can get visitors unannounced.
7. Doctors don't give appointments here, well you can get one, but don't expect for them to be there or you be called on time. Patients would need to wait for at least an hour despite appointments. But every one gets to consult with a doctor.
8. People are absent minded and not customer focussed, if you go to a store and you are in line for billing, you can see associates chit-chatting or doing this in slow-motion, like barcode scans, entering data, bagging, etc...
9. Pathetic road sense, no lanes are marked on roads, but that does not make a difference since no one follows it, Bikers cut lanes all of a sudden as if they don't care about their safety, some bikers drive on pavements if the road is backed by traffic.
10. People want to get away by breaking rules, some even brag about it. One acquaintance brags about driving without helmet (new rule enforced in TN), He says he has always got out of it by paying 2-3 times to cops before and he will do so again. Well he is not one, there are many like him all around me.

Well there could be exceptions to this.

There are things I like about India:

1. Back with family
2. Temples and festivals
3. Civil society trying to fight against corruption and lack of Government's efforts in this area
4. Small shop keepers help by delivering at old people's houses.
5. Democracy that allows to select the next Government every 5 years.
6. Freedom of press
7. Work from culture is even more acceptable compared to previous visits.
8. Cell phone bills, Cable/Satellite TV costs less than US
9. Neighbors are helpful and support in times of troubled times
10. Real estate prices are still good.

Oracle Export Tables with CLOB

Method 1:
Exp system@OraSID TABLES= (owner.table_name) DIRECT=Y RECODELENTH=65335 FILE=C:\table_name.dmp

Method 2:
Exp system@OraSID TABLES= (owner.table_name) FILE=C:\table_name.dmp BUFFER=37748736

The Buffer parameter applies only to conventional path export. It has no effect on a direct path Export. For direct path exports use RECORDLENGTH parameter to specify the size of the buffer that Export uses for writing to the export file. 64K is the max buffer size.

MS Terminal Service - Options

Many a times, one of my colleagues takes up a terminal session to a Windows server for some POC in the Lab. The problem is Windows provides licenses for upto 2 terminal connections to the server. In such a case, if you want to administer or even work on your stuff. You are forced to make a trip to the Lab or the data center to connect to the server and start the terminal manager and kill some of the sessions, this was the way I knew, until NOW.

the best way is to use mstsc /admin option to start the terminal service client in your computer and then you will be able to connect to the server even if both the terminal services are taken by other users. You can then choose to administer the server or log off unused sessions. Well this saves me a trip to the Lab.

My Writeup: Check Scam - Please read

Recently when I went to deposit a check at my Bank I found a leaflet saying "Don't be a victim of a check scam!" I was taken aback since I was not aware completely of how this works. So I grabbed the leaflet and drove to work. Later that day, I read it and understood it. 

Here is a gist of this leaflet.

How it occurs:

If someone sends a check or money order and asks you to deposit it in your account and wire-transfer the  money minus some bonus or incentive for your help, ensure you refuse to do it no matter how lucrative the offer is. If you do not know the person, DON'T DO IT.

Here is how the scam happens:

Requests can come in various forms:

1. Say you are over paid by someone for an item you sold on the internet and are asked to wire transfer the extra money back.
2. You might get a check saying you won a lottery overseas. You are asked to deposit a check and wire transfer a portion of the deposited amount as a tax or fees, so that the remaining earning would be mailed to you.
3. Some one would email you saying they have inherited wealth and would need your help to get it and so on.

Here is why its a scam:

1. The check or money order you get would be a counterfeit. 
2. Counterfeit checks and money orders will be returned to your bank and the amount will be deducted from your account since you are responsible for any check or money order you deposit that turns out to be unpaid for any reason.
3. Law requires banks to make deposited funds to be made available within 1-5 days. 
4. Ability to withdraw cash from your account does not mean the check/money order is valid.
5. It can be weeks before a check or money order is discovered to be counterfeit and returned unpaid to your bank.
6. Bank employees may not be able to determine the validity of a check during deposit. They simple process the financial document.

Here is a link for more info - http://fakechecks.org/

This reminds about what my dad used to tell me, never be greedy, what you earn from hard work and sincerity is what would stay. A quick run to make some money could undo all the good deeds you have done. So be wise folks.