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)

A newsletter is what it purports to be – it is full of news and it is a letter, and letters are to be replied to. This is an interactive medium and we are always only too happy to receive some contributions, feedback, query…… Unfortunately, we have hardly had any response coming in – be it positive or negative. Do tell us if you like something you read and do tell us if you don’t like something you read. You can always shout the first one from the rooftops and whisper the second one to us.

        On another note, it is a year now since we shifted to our new Software Development Centre. A lot of things have fallen into place, the traffic scene on Hosur Road has improved vastly and we are reaching home at a reasonable hour. It takes time to settle into a new office or a new home and we are now well and truly settled in. On our first anniversary here, let us all join in raising a toast to BbyB and wishing it a long and successful innings!

Padma

From The Management                                                                                       (top)

Dear All,  

        I would first of all like to thank all those involved in organizing the “Fun day” and also all staff who joined in and made it the success that it was. I have always maintained that we need to spend some time together doing something other than just work and the “Fun day” was a great example of this.
        I have also been approached by HR for starting the concept of “TGIF” at BbyB. Considering the fun that all of us had yesterday I believe we should certainly give it a try. I don't know if we can have one each week so may be have a “TGILFM” - Thank God it is the last Friday of the Month!

Regards,
Raghu

Projects News

MESaLS                                                                                                                  (top)

MESaLS team was very busy during the month of May.  We had received some more change controls to be included in the MESaLS Version 4.02, after the User Group last month.  We released the enhanced version 4.02 on 15th June 2007.  There was an NAEP conference scheduled on 27th and 28th of June and the new version of Pocket MESaLS V2 was demo'ed there.  This had new features like a Requisition Processing wizard, ability to work off webservices  and transmit the activities completed on the handheld device wirelessly to main server without user interaction.  BHP will decide how to proceed with this version after assessing the feedback from the conference.  More about what happened in MESaLS next month...

Till then enjoy the lovely weather.

Shashidhar for MESaLS

pFACT                                                                                                                    (top)

The pFACT team has been working hard this month to build up speed as a major version is to be released in the month of July along with the integrated pFACT version. The whole team is working on the integrated version. Sumathy, Jayaraj and I are also working on the patch releases. The patch releases are 2.01.e in SQL and 2.01.f in Oracle. pFACT testing team is doing a great job and are also writing test cases for the coming major release.

Sukanya for pFACT

Sepia                                                                                                                      (top)

This month has been a quiet month for Sepia as far as releases are concerned.  There have been no releases, which gave the team time to complete most of the issues that were logged earlier and were pending.  We also have sent the Sepia Help documents for review to BHP.  We are waiting for the feedback.  An enhancement list is waiting for a go ahead from BHP before implementation.  Hopefully we should be able to work on those in July.  Visit us next month for an update on Sepia.

Shashidhar for Sepia

Other News                                                                                                          (top)

Farewell to Arun, Raju and Jomon
We bid farewell to Arun B, Kumar Raju Vysyaraju and Jomon Thomas this month.

Arun joined BbyB in October 2002. He was part of the StaffBank team and was also its Project Leader. In the last 5 years, BbyB celebrated his marriage to Vidya and the birth of their son, Nitin. Arun is a person of few words but will be missed a lot as he was very helpful and would never lose his cool. Arun has joined Wipro. We wish him all the very best.

Raju of the Testing Team and Jomon of StaffBank also bid farewell in June. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

What a Fun Day!

What’s your FQ (fun quotient)? That was the big question facing BbyBers on the 27th – World Fun Day. By the end of the day we all knew the answer – our FQ is so high that it reaches stratospheric heights.

Work came to a standstill at 5:30 and the BbyBers strolled out to the car park ready to enjoy themselves. Soft drinks and potato crisps helped to make a smooth transition from work to play. There were four teams and they had been asked to select a wacky name for themselves. StaffBank rose to the occasion and called themselves Chai Baba and Bhakthjan or CBB for short. pFACT decided they wanted to be known as the Skull Crackers, Mesals-Sepia in a moment of inspiration christened themselves Silly Billy, and Testing Team said they’d like to be known as Kurkure. Without a doubt, the prize for the most innovative name went to Chai Baba and Bhakthjan.

The fun day started with games like musical chair, lemon & spoon, three-legged race and moved on to Ek minute games like sticking bindis, blowing balloons, tying rubber bands and sit-ups. Each game saw 2 members from a team participating. Sharada of the Silly Billy team grabbed the chair and the prize for the Musical chairs game. Sabin from Silly Billy (again!) proved he has marvellous powers of concentration when he won the Lemon and Spoon race. The three-legged race was a sitter for Chai and Baba (Chaitanya and Sreedhar for the uninitiated) although Sanuj and Rajendra tried their best, but in vain – for they wound up at the finishing line with a mighty crash and mighty bruises to follow.

The Ek minute games were equally exciting. Devaki and Preetha of Team Silly Billy made sure the winning streak stuck to them by sticking the maximum number of bindis on each other’s faces. A lot of hot air was generated during the next event – Blowing the Balloon which was won by Silly Billy again, represented this time by Devaki and Jillee. With the Rubberband game, the girls got a chance to show off their long locks of hair. CBB, SkullCrackers and Kurkure hoped loudly that Sanuj of Silly Billy would take part. After his recent trip to Tirupathi, he was the perfect candidate, they reasoned, to lose the game. A smiling Sanuj refused to rise to the bait and Silly Billy represented by Sharada and Preetha won the game again.

The prize for the Sit-ups game was shared by Saksha and Vijay of Kurkure and Chaitanya and Deepak of CBB. Saksha’s unique style of sit-up cum frog-jump was hilarious and we really think he deserved a special prize for it. Housie-housie could not be played as it was time to go, but, hey, there’s always another day!!

The Silly Billy team got the maximum number of prizes - 5!!! showing that they are the Real Billies!!!

Rachana K. Sathish A new colleague has joined the BbyB family in the month of June. Rachana K Satish who has joined as a Programming Trainee is a BE (CSE) from Visweswariah Technological University. She graduated in 2004. Her hobbies includes listening to music.

Reema Joseph Reema, a Programming Trainee, is a MCA from Cochin University of Science and Technology. She graduated in 2003. Her hobbies include Garment making and Listening to music.

Training and Education                                                                                        (top)

Rachana is being trained on SQL Server by Jayaraj and on .NET by Raghu Shenoy.

Devaki conducted two training sessions in June. The session on June 8th was on ‘Using the BbyB Info System’ and on June 11th she talked about ‘Using the Visual Source Safe’. The training sessions were for all the new employees.

Weekend Jaunts                                                                                                  (top)

      This column was introduced in Issue 38, a little over a year ago. Everybody loves weekends and day/overnight trips and so we had thought this would be a column to which all would contribute. We did have a good response in the beginning with Jayashree, Hema, Om, Prathibha and others writing in, but this soon petered out. As this is a Reader Response column (one which depends on readers’ responses), and readers don't seem to be responding either with suggestions or with feedback, we have decided to discontinue the column.

Colleagues Cognizant                                                                                          (top)

   We are back with Colleagues Cognizant after a brief hiatus. Colleagues come in all shapes and sizes but the ones that touch our lives everyday are, most often, the ones who remain unsung and unnoticed. Imagine a day when there are no Raju and Sumithra to wish you a cheerful Namasthe, no Devaraj and Shila to whip up a hot lunch and crisp pakodas or no Manju to set right electrical faults and make the flowers bloom. So let’s get to know them better and find out what makes them tick.

   We start with one of the senior most of our support staff, Raju, ably supported by his wife, Sumithra.

Raju being senior, takes the floor first:

Tell us about yourself.
I am a simple man. I have my wife who is working with me. I have 2 children – a son and a daughter. Ranjitha, our daughter, is the elder one and she is in the 3rd standard and our son Ganesha is in the 1st standard. They both go to BTL School.

I am illiterate and so is my wife and so we feel very happy that we are able to educate our children in a good English medium school. I have faced a lot of tragedy and have had to sell whatever land I owned in my village but life has become a lot better for us now.

How long have you been working for BbyB?
I have been working here for the last 13 years. Right from the beginning I was taken as Office Boy. I started off with cleaning the office, washing cars for the Boss, dusting computers and tables, etc. When we were working in the Koramangala Office, I would also run errands, pay the phone and water bill, etc.

What changes have you seen here over the years?
One of the changes I have seen is that, this office is a big one now and all are happy here. I always had a wish that this office grows bigger and bigger and it is nice to see it happening. I have adjusted to the new office and employees completely.
The other change is that when I was in the old office, my family was staying in a rented house which was a little far away, but now we have been given a good house to stay in and that too within the office campus itself. We are very happy to be staying here.

Tell us about your duties.
We both start work at 6:30 am. Our duties include - sweeping and mopping the whole office, dusting the tables and monitors, cleaning the dustbins, swimming pool, wash- rooms, etc. I sometimes go to Jigani to pick up breakfast for other employees and purchase anything else that is required. Washing the glasses, distributing tea/coffee and snacks to all the employees, washing the cars, is all part of my job.
I also know all the cable connections and help in shifting and connecting the systems. We have our breakfast by 11:00 and lunch by 3:00. Again in the evening we sweep the office, check for any personal belongings left on the employees’ tables. If so, we keep it safely and give it to the employee next day. Before leaving the office we lock all the doors, inform the security guard and go home by 10:00 pm.

How is it to have your wife working for the same company and do your children like it?
I feel very happy that my wife is working in the same place. My children also like this.

How have you liked settling down in the new BbyB office campus? Have you faced any difficulties? What are the advantages?
I like this new office. Everything is good here, except that when we were in the old office other things like banks and shops were near by, whereas the new office is a little far away from such places. The advantage of this office is that it is a big office with many good facilities, and also our house is within the campus.

Sumithra has her say:

We know you as a pleasant person. How do you keep smiling all day long?
I am happy with my work and so I keep smiling always. What is the use of keeping a sad face? I have lost two children in their infancy, my house has been burgled and have faced other misfortunes as well, but life has become a lot better now for us.

Tell us about your experience after joining BbyB. Any memorable incidents that you remember?
Here everything and every employee is very good. I have been working here for almost 2 years and I am happy here.
One thing I remember is that while shifting from the old office to the new office, there was quite some tension in shifting all the office property here. We had shifted to the new office two weeks earlier to clean it and settle things here. It was a very busy but good time. Also, I can’t forget the Office Party on December 9th, which went on very well and I still remember that everyone enjoyed themselves a lot.

What do you like most about working here?
It’s a good office and people are good. I like doing all the work here.

How do you like to spend your free time?
I spend all my free time with my children, playing with them and talking to them about various things.

                                                                                    
Birthdays                                                                                                             (top)
The Beacon wishes Chaitanya, Padma, Sunita and Srikanth a very happy and cheerful birthday and lots of fun and frolic on that very special day.

Ram and Lakshman's Birthday Snaps                                                                                           
                  


                  

Deepak's Birthday Snaps                                                                                                                

                  

Sunitha's Birthday Snaps                                                                                                   

                 

Raghu's Birthday Snaps