Power of Data and the joy of visualization

Lately, I have been into Data science. I never truly believed a future event can be predicted out of the data collected over the past until I saw some serious predictions made by the peers of my Data science class. Being a Computer Science student or a usual software professional, the first thought always goes to the algorithm and the mind is such a way molded to concentrate on the algorithm and never see what can be achieved with the data. The algorithm always takes the center stage and spotlight is never on the data. Take a step back and have a broader view. Think like a Data Scientist. Connect the dots and search for the meaning it reveals. Predict the future event and be surprised. That is one simple way to appreciate the power of data.

In a recent video, I came across, I found how powerful data can be and how visualizing it can make a lot of sense to even the commoners. In this video, Enormous quantities of data are combined and processed an presented in a sport's commentator's style to reveal the story of the world's past, present, and future development. It is narrated in a spectacular way using augmented reality animation. He visualizes the data in a very meaningful way to show the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers - in just four minutes.

The painful process of booking takal tickets in IRCTC

I used to live in Madurai. I got an internship at a company at Chennai few months back. Since then I became an active user of IRCTC booking tickets every alternative weeks to visit my home. I visited almost every day to either book tickets or to check the pnr status or the refund status of the cancelled tickets. At one point I almost thought of making it my home page! Then one day I had to book tickets in last minute planning to go home. I decided to book my tickets in takal quota. It usually opens at 10. Nearly 1/10th of the Indian population will fight for the few tickets left.  That day I was one of them.

I logged in with my laptop by 9.55am waiting for the takal ticket booking to open. As the clock striked 10. I raced to enter the to and from destination and clicked search train. It got struck. I waited patiently as I expected it. The page dint move forward for more than 2 minutes. I cant afford to lose time, So I refreshed the page and it got logged out. Again I entered mu username and password to log in. It took time to log in but did. Again I entered the to and from and clicked search trains. It listed the available trains as I clicked on one of them to show available seats, Half of them was booked with less than 50 seats left. I clicked book and filled up my details as fast as I could and clicked proceed. I then entered my credentials and clicked pay and crossed my fingers.A wheel appeared on screen and it seem to rotate forever and ever. More than 5 minutes went and there was no sign of tickets booked. I checked my mail and phone for any sign of booked ticket. But nothing was there. Then the message appeared on the screen ' The requested page cannot be displayed'. But the money was taken from my account. I dint waste time, I again tried booking a ticket without worrying about my last failed effort or wasting time. This time only 15 seats were left. So again I repeated the process with double the speed and clicked pay. Again the familiar wheel appeared on screen. I was hoping it works this time. Just then the ticket displayed on my screen. Yay!!! I booked my ticket. But that joy was short lived when I discovered my ticket status was WL18!! When I checked 3 minutes back, there was 15 seats left and now all was gone and its just 10.20am!  and there was no chance of people booking a day before the travel to cancel. So I had to cancel the one I booked. But I needed a ticket to get  home. So I opened a tab and went to a bus ticket booking website. They are never crowded and you can find tickets for any given day. So with all the frustration that irctc gave me, I chose a random bus to my city and the payment process went smoothly with ticket in my phone within just 2 minutes. I should not have wasted time and money on booking train tickets. Instead  I should have come straight to the bus booking that never gives you heart breaks.

And for the record -  I wont accept technology has grown in leaps and bounds and IT field is escalating unless people can create a railway booking website that can handle any amount of traffic and successfully cross through payment gateway for every passenger's booking. 

selfie selfie everywhere!!!

Wasn't camera invented to capture rare events, celebrations and soon to be sweet memories?
Yes, it was, but now it has become viral. Whenever one put on a new dress or when hanging around with friends in a mall or beach or anywhere else. Taking a selfie doesn't end there. It goes on with uploading it in Facebook wall and crossing a minimum of 100 likes. Sometimes the main idea behind going on a trip or a outing becomes taking photos until you get a cool dp for facebook or watsapp.  Not just in tens but hundreds of them.  Enter a restroom in malls, office I bet you can find somebody pointing there cellphones at mirror and making funny faces.There will be somebody in everybody's friend's list who changes his profile pic on a daily basis and just for that sake taking selfies vigorously until dp of the day is achieved. It turns you into an attention seeker knowingly or unknowingly. Give it a break!!!

#Stolen_lines

I came across few lines I really liked and found it really funny and I wanted to share it on my blog.

This one is from quora
★What is the most catastrophic mistake made by an intern at a tech company?
Plugging out the main server in order to plug in phone charger

And one more from I_dont_remember_where:P
★A candle goes out when bad things happens somewhere out there!
Internet of Things??!!

Typical Yash Chopra lines!

I realised a few days back the modern age directors are imitating Yash Raj in writing heart touching dialogues with deep meaning. Yash Raj movies are synchronous with overflowing romantic dialogs and Karan johar's is filled with witty comical ones. Here are few of my favourites from some of the hindi moview I watched. I have translated them to english.

Om Shanti Om- "When you want something with all your heart, then the whole universe will conspires in helping you to achieve it.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

 Guru-"You gave me 5 mins right? ... in 4 minutes 30 seconds I finished everything ... 30 seconds profit, profit ... this is called business"

Guru-"Why are you people upset with me? ... with my growth ... or with the speed of my growth" 

3 Idiots-"It feels bad when a friend fails ... but it feels even worse when he comes first"

 Chak De India-"We will die and come ... but we will not loose and come"

 Jab Tak Hai Jaan-"Every love has its own time..that time was not ours.. but that doesn't mean that the love itself wasn't there.."

Jab Tak Hai Jaan-"Either he (God) has to kill me ... or else he has to lose and send you to me"

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi-"In life we choose some relationships ... and God chooses some for us"

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi-"God does not give the same to same happiness to everyone, we should snatch our share from him"

 Aashique2-"This life was going on ... but I started living since you came"

 Barfi-"Even silence is a language of love"

 Raanjhaanna-"A lover doesn't get scared when his love is getting married ... he gets scared when he is getting married"

Zindagi na milegi doabara-"While getting a pay check ... do you get tears in your eyes?"

Someone I met..

There is a guy in the place I work. I dont want to name him. He is a HR. I have never met someone so commanding. He is young must be in his late 20s or early 30s. He doesnt hold an MBA from IIM but some decent business school. The very first day I walked into this company, He welcomed us with his over powering speech. It was more of a warning_covered_with_honey kind of speech. He keeps saying he is cool. He has got a dont_you_mess_with_me_or_your_ fired kind of attitude. He said simple things about the company and how to behave in a corporate but at the end of his talk, we were convinced not to meddle with him ever. I try many a times to find what these people are thinkng while they speak to you. But never could I even guess whats running in their mind. I dont know how these HRs get this skill. Is this fed along with course work to every student of Premium Business school?

New Year 2014

New Year..New place.. New Job.. New Friends.. Carrying New and Old hopes and moving forward to live up with new resolutions( I dont usually take them or I forget them as jan moves:P) And thats not to be a weak women who is ready to cry even on slightest provocation and face every challenge alone boldly. Crossing my fingers and hoping god has good things in store for me and everybody around me in this year and then.
Happy New Year.
May all your efforts reap good results. May Good health be with you and Happiness fill your way.