Introduction

The BbyB Beacon is an electronic publication to keep the members of Bit by Bit informed about the current affairs of the company. It contains announcements of important events like training programmes, Management Review Meetings, etc.

Contact Information
 Any contributions to the newsletter in the form of technical articles, or items of general interest, are welcome. Please send them to padmabaliga@bbyb.sdc.int or padmabaliga@bbyb.com

Editorial                                                                                                                    (top)

In a recent survey, India was ranked 125th in the world in terms of happiness. Indians are perceived as a race of people who are unhappy. This has nothing to do with economic indicators as nations which have the highest GDP are not at the top of the happy list either. Happiness cannot be linked to material possessions, for one always wants a bigger home, a better car and a jazzier cell phone. One is happy if one decides to be happy.

On another note, a much debated and maligned Reader’s Digest survey published a couple of months ago has designated Mumbai as one of the rudest cities in the world. Why are we getting the short end of the stick consistently? Is it because the parameters of the survey are wrong, or because we don’t care how we present ourselves to the world? Recently, a US plane on its way to India, returned to Amsterdam under military escort because of the suspicious behaviour of some passengers, all of whom were later found to be Indian-born. The passengers were also found guilty of nothing but lack of etiquette. It’s time we took a long, hard look at ourselves.

Padma

From The Management                                                                                       (top)
Dear All,  

It has now been a month since we moved over to the new software development centre and I hope you have all settled in. I do accept that there are a few issues which we need to deal with and these will be dealt with as soon as possible. Please bear with us when these are being dealt with and hopefully in the next couple of months all these would have been dealt with. It is not that these issues are unimportant, it is just that there are a few more high priority issues (like getting KEB power and not having to rely on expensive generator power, getting a name board..) which need to be attended to first.

We at BbyB don't require much of a reason to have a party but a few of you may have noticed the fact that we had no celebration for opening the new offices. The reason behind this being that we wanted to celebrate this along with the 15th anniversary of BbyB. We are planning a huge celebration at the Software Development Centre on Saturday 9th December 2006. Formal invitations will be sent out later but I ask all current and ex staff to try and keep themselves free for this celebration.

Regards,
Raghu

Projects News

StaffBank                                                                                                            (top)

Hi All,

First of all it is nice to see all of us under one roof, and we all are now working in a great campus. Two additions to our Testing team are Poornima and Vasudev Shenoy and we welcome them.

Arun was handling version release in StaffBank as well as in OCR and was also working on Autoemail changes and other day-to-day issues.

Chaitanya was writing classes for StaffRoster as well as handling a few issues in StaffRoster.

Raghu was busy in developing StaffRoster User Interface using the latest Visual Studio 2005.

Sajayan was handling issues that arose in StaffBank on the Web and was mainly working on Helpdesk changes, while Sachin implemented Payroll for Medway along with HelpDesk Reports and South Reports for BHP.

Sreedhar was busy in developing StaffRoster User Interface as well as handling web issues.

Uma was looking at fixes for external errors in StaffBank.

Apart from dealing with day-to-day issues, Usha was working on converting Visual Studio 2003 projects to the latest Visual Studio 2005 and also using Visual Studio 2005 to design a few custom controls for Staff Roster. Along with payrule changes for Nottingham trust, changes are going on in AfC for last two of the London trusts going with AfC in September 2006 and also version releases to Guys and Thomas and NHSP.

Jayashree was writing test cases for STM and UCLH AfC payrolls for all staff groups and test plans for 20800. Poornima and Saraswati were testing some of the external changes/bug fixes for StaffBank. Vasudev was testing change controls for StaffBank.

I was working on change control for Guys & Thomas, London AfC Grade mappings and was writing stored procedures for StaffRoster.

Prathibha for StaffBank

MESaLS                                                                                                                  (top)

Mesals Team has been occupied with a lot of major enhancements that will be incorporated in a release slated for the end of August.

Some of the key features being included in this release are Continence Module (which deals with Cyclic Deliveries of Products), Changes to Product Transfers to enable requesting without specific item commitments, Changes to Stock calculations to consider Transfer Requests as commitments, Bulk recording of completion / incompletion of Requisition activities in Handhelds, Batch Processing of Handheld activities, Provision for collection of items to non-delivery resources and the list
goes on. The team has worked tirelessly over the last 6 weeks to bring in all these key features into the application.

There were no Dry Runs and Go Lives scheduled during this month, which resulted in maximum time being spent in change controls development work.

Dattatraya conducted a training session of Mesals for all the Trainees. The result of the test conducted subsequently revealed a better-than-expected understanding of the software among some of them.

We are eagerly waiting for the version release and responses for it from the users as it is a much-anticipated release in recent months for Mesals.

Muthu left BbyB this month. A word of thanks to him for all the hard work that he has put in for Mesals and we wish him all the best in all his future endeavours.

We welcome Raju to our Testing team.

Naveen for MESaLS

pFACT                                                                                                                   (top)

Hi All,

It being my turn this month, I take the pleasure of writing about the pFACT developments in the month of August, for the newsletter.

It was a month filled with excitement as we shifted to our new office. With the new office atmosphere, new setups...it’s fun to work.

Due to some technical problems, however, pFACT development slowed down. But the team kept up its spirits and made sure it met the target. pFACT SQL release for this month included Versions 2.00.27 to 2.00.30 followed by pFACT Oracle release of Versions 2.00.16 and 2.00.21.

We welcome Srikanth and Rejith into our Testing team.

Manu for pFACT

Sepia                                                                                                                   (top)

It was an exciting month for all of us in BbyB as we shifted to our new premises. Initially, we had a few technical problems, but we could manage to release two versions, one for Dorset and other for Milton Keynes with the help of Jayaraj and Shashi, who had taken great pains in sending mails to clients. These two releases had a few bug fixes and also certain external changes.
August has also been a very busy month for the Sepia team as Manoj was on leave for first 3 weeks of the month and Devaki and I had to handle the whole set of user group enhancements. This will be a major release for the user groups with changes to Security, MHMDS, Client, Carer, General Practitioner and Care Worker files. This also includes adding of new Case load reports and Consultant reports.

We had a discussion with John regarding MHMDS data and assigning of users to a login group during the second week of August.

So by the end of August or the first week of September Sepia team will be releasing a beta version 3.09.00.1 to BHP.

We warmly welcome Sunita to the Sepia testing team.

Hema for Sepia

Other News                                                                                                        (top)

Farewell to Muthukumar
Muthukumar who brightened up everyone’s mornings with his cheery greetings and smiling countenance left BbyB on August 4th. He has joined Wipro Technologies as Project Engineer. Muthu hopes that BbyB will continue to grow in the years to come and is looking forward to BbyB attaining the CMMI certification.

John Hart’s Visit
John Hart was in Bangalore from August 9th to 15th to touch base with the pFACT and Peruse teams. In order to get to know the team members better, he hosted a dinner party for the members of pFACT, Peruse and Sepia teams at Magnolia on August 14th. Devaki’s little son, Sandeep, was the surprise guest and the chief attraction.

Congratulations, Sajayan!
Hearty congratulations to Sajayan and his wife, Subha, who have become the proud parents of a bonny baby boy. The little one was born on August 20th and weighed 3.38 kilos. Sajayan, who had taken Paternity Leave has come back looking pleased as Punch.

Holidays                                                                                                                 (top)

21st September, a Thursday, is a holiday on account of Mahalaya Amavasya.


Training and Education                                                                                         (top)

Two training sessions on “Using the Visual Source Safe” were conducted on August 16th and 21st. The faculty for both the sessions was Devaki A.K.
Meanwhile, the trainees are having ongoing Project orientation sessions.

Meetings and Events

An internal ISO audit took place on August 2, 3, 7, and 8.

Colleagues Cognizant                                                                                           (top)

This month, we get to know better Jillee, who hails from Manipur and Saraswathi who is from Hubli. Do read on and don’t forget to send in your feedback.

Jillee Yurembam
Jillee likes to grow his hair long and sport a smile. He joined BbyB in October 2005 as Domain Member VB and ASP.Net and has been part of the Mesals project ever since. He describes his tenure at BbyB as an amazing one for “working with a wonderful team has given me the opportunity to learn every moment” he says. Jillee feels that the friendly atmosphere and sharing attitude helps to bring out the best in him to become a responsible Team Member. (“Thanks Mesals Team!” he exults)

Jillee, can you describe yourself in a few lines?
I am a jolly and fun loving guy. I love to meet new people and visit different places.

Very few at BbyB have visited Manipur. Can you describe your home town to us?
Manipur literally means a land of Jewels. It is truly a beautiful place with Mother Nature being extra generous.

What do you like and dislike most about Bangalore?
The climate is Bangalore is superb but I hate the traffic especially the traffic on Hosur Road. (When one reflects on the serene, winding roads of hilly Manipur and the absence of chaotic traffic, one quite understands Jillee’s feelings)

You vibe well with ?
With everyone (Jillee looked surprised at the thought of not getting on well with someone)

What are your strengths and weaknesses?
My strength is my passion to learn new things and as far as my weakness is concerned, I trust people easily which sometimes ends up in a difficult situation.

If you hadn’t become a Software Programmer, you would have been……?
I would have been a Teacher.

Name the woman you admire the most.
Mother Teresa, a symbol of love and dedication

Your ideal holiday would be…
Spending a few weeks with my family on an exotic island.

Saraswathi
Saraswathi is quiet and unassuming and joined BbyB in September 2005 as a Testing Engineer. She has been with StaffBank from the beginning. She describes herself as being very simple, hard-working and ambitious, with a zest for life.

Can you describe your work to us?
My work is to make the product bug-free to the maximum extent and improve customer satisfaction.

Who’s your favourite actor and why?
My favourite actor is Aamir Khan. I like him because he is very talented and is able to bring to life any character he plays.

What do you like and dislike most about Bangalore?
I like Bangalore very much because of its good weather and great spots to enjoy. I also have good friends here. I dislike Bangalore because of the long distances and heavy traffic.

You vibe well with……?
With anyone who is fun-loving and who has the same sense of ‘enjoyment’.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?
My strength is my self-confidence and my hard-working nature. My weakness is that I become tense over small issues, which I should try and avoid.

If you hadn’t become a Testing Engineer, you would have been……?
An engineer in the electrical field.

Name the man you admire the most.
I admire my father the most.

Your idea of chilling out?
Going to Singapore which is a very beautiful place.

Weekend Jaunts                                                                                                  (top)
   

As we lose the smallest and last of our planets, the history of the solar system is being re-written. This has also resulted in OmPrakash being inspired to send us off on a weekend of historical interest before some untoward event causes us to lose these gems of Hoysala architecture.

For your weekend jaunt in September, Om recommends that you take in Sravanabelagola, Belur and Halebid. If you have your own transport, you can accomplish this in a day, rather a long one though. If you are going to travel by train or in a KSRTC bus, Om suggests that you spend the night at Hassan, where the accommodation is pretty good (you even have the Hassan Ashok!) and there is a variety of restaurants to choose from.

A simpler option, says Om, is to take the KSTDC package tour to these three places. You set off from Badami House (near Unity Building) at 6:30 in the morning and return by 9:00 pm. The package includes cost of travel and the services of a qualified guide. A guide is a necessity if you visit these places on your own, and can be hired at any of them.

If you are setting off on your own, take a train or a KSRTC bus to Hassan and take a cab or a local bus from there to do your sight-seeing. The frequency of trains is pretty good. If you’d like to drive down, make an early start and take the Tumkur Road and proceed to Hassan. The 180 km. drive can be accomplished in 3 – 4 hours. The road on this stretch is good. An alternative route, Nelamangala-Kunigal-Yediyur-Sravanabelagola-Chennarayapatna-Hassan is shorter but not as good. From Hassan, the 3 places are easily accessible. Sravanabelagola is 52 kms to the south-east, Belur is 40 kms to the north-west and Halebid is 32 kms to the north. Belur and Halebid are a mere 17 kms apart.

The statue of Gomateshwara at Sravanabelagola is situated at the top of a hill, and you will need to climb 615 steps to reach the top. So make the climb either in the early hours of the morning or the late hours of the afternoon. Avoid it when the sun is high up in the sky. Carved out of monolithic stone, the majestic statue is an imposing 17 metres high and was sculpted by Aristanemi in 981 A.D. The chief festival here is a visual treat and a real crowd-puller. It is called the Mahamastakabhisheka and is performed once in 12 years. Thousands of gallons of milk, honey and precious herbs are poured over the head of the statue. It was last held in February this year.

The temples at Halebid and Belur represent the best and the finest in Hoysala architecture. They were commissioned and built in the 12th and the 13th centuries.
Om was probably also inspired by the words, “What the Parthenon is to Greece and the pyramids to Egypt, the Hoysala temples are to South Indian architecture.”
Students from art colleges are regular visitors here, and they often become part-time residents as they study the details of the temples, staying on for days together. The temple at Belur is still functional but the Halebid temple, though open to the public, is no longer in use for devotional purposes.

Om suggests that if you stay the night in Hassan, try and be at Halebid temple before dawn to catch the play of morning light on the beautiful stone sculptures.

Sravanabelagola
Gomateshwara(Lord Bahubali)
Belur
Halebidu

Birthdays                                                                                                             (top)

After a record six birthday celebrations last month, this month we have five people donning the birthday caps and cutting the cake. Party-time is now 4 p.m., so remember to put aside the coding conundrums at 4 pm on those days and make your way to the dining hall.

Sai Ramesh 's Birthday Snaps

Jayaraj's Birthday Snaps

Datta's Birthday Snaps