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Autistic, the socially ignorant

This article is based on some articles I've read on Autism.

Autism, the word may sound strange to you, or even unheard of. But this is a definition for a behaviour of that everyone should be aware of.
Autistic behaviour, is and has been present in our social network all these years. Being educated on autism may help you to recognize an autistic and understand the reason for his/her behaviour that may seem strange to you.
Have you come across a person who does not express themselves properly, more silent, less friends and friend making, less eye contact, etc.. Well, you should be by now, because a considerable percentage in our country does suffer with different disorders of Autism and these are very recognisable characteristics of Autism.
Now wait, do you think that you sport all these characteristics? Do not suspect, just thoroughly go through the diagnose of Autism and you'll find out whether you are a sufferer or not. Based on the reading, autistics do not  know that their strange behaviour is caused by a disorder, some think that its just the natural way they are and think that the society should accept what they are. But the good news is that an autistic can overcome this disorder by going through a therapy session and understanding the real situation.
The most important thing is that everyone should be educated on Autism, what it is, its characteristics, and to recognise people who suffer with it and treat them with empathy. You've been living with autistics and never knew that a disorder caused them to close the doors on social interaction.

Are You A Copy & Paste Programmer?

This is an excerpt taken from a dream-in-code newsletter. It sounded important so thought of sharing.

As I've had the opportunity to interview developers for various positions over the years, I've noticed there are two distinct types of "programmers". Those that can actually program from scratch in an IDE/editor (or on a white board as we ask them to do in interviews), and those that can Google and press Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V very effectively. 

With the explosion of Q&A sites focusing on providing quick and ready to copy and paste answers and code, the Copy & Paste Programmer is alive and well. 

Unfortunately for the first group of developers who can actually write code and don't spend all their days trying to make someone elses code work, the Copy & Paste Programmer has created quite a problem. Taking away jobs, perpetuating a culture of unmaintanable, and undocumented code that the Copy & Paste Programmer never understood to begin with. 

At Dream.In.Code, we're often criticized for asking members to put forth a little effort and try to actually learn a little and understand what it is they are doing. This is apparently too much to ask for the countless lazy students and young professionals that would rather be handed 100 lines of code they can pass off as their own than spend a few extra minutes learning how to actually solve a problem. What's sad is, this used to be limited to academic settings, but as those individuals graduate and enter the work force, we're seeing more and more questions from "professionals" who need someone to write their code for them. This is disgusting, and it's being supported by other programmers who will gladly do their work for them.

While there is nothing wrong with doing some research and finding a snippet or two to help you complete an application, if you find yourself assembling programs entirely from code copied from forums, Q&A sites, etc. You are a Copy & Paste Programmer and you are not only hurting yourself, but you're hurting your entire industry. 

Dream.In.Code does not and will not support a culture in which programmers can not write code from scratch or complete basic troubleshooting and debugging. This is why we encourage discussion, learning, and a good faith effort from everyone receiving help. It may not be the easy or popular thing to do, but for those genuinely interested in having a successful career as a programmer, it's the right thing to do. 

Dream in Code

Room for Debate - Space for me within a 7 Billion

The world population growth is accelerating in light years. Its so frustrating to admit that I'm losing my private space every day but now, in an accelerating motion.

Scary! Ain't it wouldn't be? The big question rises out of nowhere, can the planet handle this?

It is expected that the pop will reach 7B by end of 2011 as I heard and India and Africa are extremely proud of their unconditional reproductive capabilities. US never admits their largest contribution for environmental pollution. Everyone keep digging oil and heating the climate which is running lunatic these days and I'm having goosebumps because I'm losing my space of existence.

Hope Floats...

We all have goals in our lives. Even at this moment you and I have a few in goals in our minds that we want to achieve in future and might be working on them at the same time. Sometimes, there are situations where you start something, halfway through you get good results and then drives you off with high expectations that you can do much much better. Its true that in many instances the final result tends to be far better as expected, but at the same time it can be lower than expected giving you great grief and disappointment.

Life sucks sometimes, it rocks sometimes, but its in your fate to get stuck in life when it sucks or it rocks or when both happens at the same time. It happens at the same time, believe me and these situations are the instances that should happen in your life, to suck and rock at the same time cuz they bring balance to your life and gives you confidence with very little of disappointment.

I've been working on for a target the entire year 2010 and the results were received few days back (November 2010). I have achieved my target well enough but considering the mid year review I expected a far better result from myself towards the final evaluation. I didn't know the limits of my capabilities or the ability I had to clash with my peers to reach my goal. However, the point is, when you have this high expectations from yourself, you have to work much harder than earlier to achieve this goal. It is upto you to ask your conscience whether you have done upto that level or not. However, if you are aware that you had not done extra bit of work to achieve the high expectation, its good to expect less, than to expect more and get disappointed over the surprise fall.

A close friend of mine used to believe in this philosophy called "DO's = GET's". It looks very simple but its applicable almost everywhere. There is no ">" or "<" in life, its always "=". This is also parallel with the proverb in the Bible, "Reap what you saw". So we need to keep in mind to work hard as the results we are expecting from our investments.

I had in an earlier post about Nelson Mandela, and how the poem "Invictus" motivated his life. The poem itself summarizes to "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul". So I earlier mentioned that fate decides whether your life suck or rocks and here we say you only can master your fate. Therefore, It is upto you to decide whether your life sucks or rocks. It depends on your Analytical skills, talents, determination, hard work and effectiveness. Also a senior teacher of mine used to say "Do your very best and God will do the rest". Therefore you are required to control yourself to perform better inorder to reach the goal in expected heights. Otherwise failure lies at your own hands.

A final word, "Do not be disappointed that you failed to achieve one great thing, there are thousands out there waiting for you to reach them"

I have not been conquered

Can't believe it took an year to come across Invictus and I've been inspired by two things, the way Clint Eastwood delivers powerful messages through the character of Nelson Mandela and the role that earned him a Nobel peace laureate.

This post is explicitly not about Invictus, this is a discussion on a single topic I picked out from Nelson Mandela in Invictus and I'm so glad that I have such a platform to share my opinion and let it be heard.

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and how he took revenge from his enemies? by forgiveness.

This might sound so freaked out, if I imagine myself in such a state, I would have gone around in a suicidal mission around SA after a prison break. but after some small researching, I found out that the mind set in Nelson Mandela created the heading for the 2009 movie itself, "Invictus" of course!

'Invictus' is an inspiring poem written by an English poet, William Henley. The verse is as below,

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Reciting this poem will not give you any meaning in the first glimpse. Just try going through it a bit thoroughly, you will find inspiration as well as of stoicism (the means of understanding the natural state of things, or logos, and as a means of freeing oneself from emotional distress).

As I see, the verse explains the well known fact that, "Do your very best, GOD will do the rest". This is something my class teacher back in school used to tell us occasionally as a motivational boost that I have to play my part true to lead to the succession. Praying to GOD with my own workload pending will be futile. Also emphasises on self control and understanding that you alone and alone are responsible for your life. 'I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my life', a line with so much of power and influence also spoken out by Morgan Freeman in his depiction of Mandela at the end of Invictus.

When I go through this, it gives me the feeling that the person who recites this must have gone through a series of depression and dismay, has suffered badly and is finding the explanations for reasons that lead him to that state of existence. And this poem explains to himself that no one but himself is responsible for that. This is not self torture, this is self control. Its quite evident how the life of Mandela reflects the meaning of the verse. In many of his popular speeches he conveys the message of forgiveness, unity and harmony.

'I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.'

In invictus (2009), when his bodyguard asks about "how is your family sir?" the reply is heart throbbing, "I have a very large family, 42 million".

The meaning of Invictus is 'I have not been conquered'.

Courageous yet Unsuccessful?

I've been roaming through the never ending streets in Pettah (starting from Prince st, 1st cross st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, so on...) today, looking for a particular shop. Just along the way, turning left and right, I see different kinds of people with different attire walking here 'n there with different expressions in their faces. The part of people that caught my attention were those selling stuff on the street. They have small plastic rugs laid on the floor or small wooden setups filled with stuff you would give up trying to identify what they are. Some guys only have one set of items like books, paper knives or small lamps. So from the morning to evening what they do is wander or just stay still hoping that they would have some selling in the day.

For one reason, I feel happy and proud about them. They are somehow trying to stand on their own feet. On the other hand, doing some kind of a business is better than doing nothing or being disappointed about life and turning towards narcotics or outlaws. These people are brave. The sole purpose is with the determination of succeeding one day or to feed somehow the dependants left behind.

But the success rate is below par 99% of the time. These businessmen are barely educated. They start their street life early on life or they are forced to step out to the street compromising the available options. they are untrained, have no vision or a meaning to their lives. Only thing is to think how to survive the next 24 hours. This is an extremely sad situation to see how the manpower of the country being wasted for non-productivity.