Livesite Support – Who should do this?

Customer service is the first line of support for any e-commerce. Traditionally these people have admin rights to the system and written instructions to follow them.

Second line of support when something goes down on live site is to call the developer on pager duty. Workaround for the problem is found and fixed on a ASAP basis and then we tend to stick with the work around forever.

Kayak has this great idea:

Why would you pay an engineer $150,000 to answer phones when you could pay someone in Arizona $8 an hour?" If you make the engineers answer e-mails and phone calls from the customers, the second or third time they get the same question, they'll actually stop what they're doing and fix the code. Then we don't have those questions anymore.

Pager duties are not fun but why Developers should be the only one to be quad-damaged by them. It should be a shared duty of the team. The tester on the team should be equally responsible for it and at the same time the program manager too.

These 2 other disciplines have their own excuses to escape such responsibilities.

QA/PM: I didn’t write the code, I don’t know the fix, how am I supposed to handle it.

You as a part of the project is expected to have a level of debugging skills, or investigation and identifying the cause based on symptoms. May be the code is right and its a network issue or service is down. Could be a false alarm etc, may be something needs to be bounced. If things are beyond your understanding I am sure developers will be more then happy to help you out. Also the ground work on investigation is going to help in getting things fixed earlier.

Its hard to sell this idea to these disciplines but then there are some smart asses who know how to frame and sell it and here’s an example:

This is a great opportunity to be close to our real customers and it will be a good learning experience for everyone to be involved in this highly visible customer service exercise. Remember that as a pager carrier, your only responsibility is to triage the issue and escalate them if necessary. Developers will always be around to help out if there are any questions.

Looking forward to a Wheel-to-Wheel

There is just something about some men that once they retire and make a later comeback, you don’t doubt them. Once they attend a press conference declaring a comeback you know how great the next season is going to be and you just cant wait to glue back to your fav sports bars’, bar table.

I am talking about Schumi’s come back. Yeah later last year when Schumacher declared a comeback with Benz it was a unanimous hail of happiness all around, regardless of the followers of F1. I wonder how do people like Lewis Hamilton feel in their heart who grew up watching the legend and then get a chance to compete against him. When Schumi declares his come back you don’t have a slightest doubt on his skills. They say victory belongs to the most preserving and what better clutches can it be in other than Schumi.

Some athletes and sportsmen belong to a league of legends who are born for glory, and radiate inspiration. Name to some: Lance Armstrong, Valentino Rossi, Michael Schumacher, Sachin Tendulkar. Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Tiger Woods, Zinedine Zidane. Whether they stay away from sports or do whatever they want but once they declare that they are back in the game… you know they will be on the Hall of Fame again.

Skill and confidence are an unconquered army
George Herbert

Tickles from Seattle - 10

AgentA: Woah Woah Woah… that is some deal $87 for complete series of Seinfeld and I have $30 of coupons.  I have waited for it so long….

<amazon.com> <click> <login> <cardDetails><checkout> 

<waiting><24th Dec phone rings>

AgentA: Hey Di how ya doing…?

Di             : I love you so much… u remembered how much I  wanted this series. This is the best Xmas gift I’ve ever received. You know you are my favorite brother…

AgentA: huh..

Di             : Yeah the Seinfeld that you send me.

AgentA: Ahhh… THE SEINFELD you are welcome.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

lesson learnt: Never get too excited on a deal… always check the shipping address as UPS doesn’t make mistakes… you might make someone real happy but may regret yourself

Biking in Seattle’s Winter

Biking in winters in one things, while biking in rains another. If both get clubbed together its a whole different pie. It was my first winter season where I attempted biking. I read quiet some blogs and informational articles on ‘how to’ n ‘what not not to’ but nothing was specific to the weather in Seattle.

There are some key things always to consider when you plan to go out for that butt freezing joy ride. Its a careful amalgam of gear, bike maintenance, bike accessories, and caution.

Clothing: One key thing to consider before you start is to that never get overdressed. Gear up, go out, you should still feel a little cold. Overdressing not only restricts your body movement, but also makes you ride heavy.

• Must is a waterproof, wind breaker light weight jacket. You don’t need a puff daddy insulate jacket as enough body heat is generated.
• Never compromise the dexterity of your fingers. So pick your gloves carefully, which are water n wind proof for biking. Fingertips specially get frozen while biking, so pick the ones with mittens.
• Waterproof shoe covers are a must. Water can still seep through so tape it further in addition to the default Velcro with a reflecting tape. Use warm socks.
• A waterproof light weight skull cap, which covers your ear. These are thin specially designed for biking in winter. They fit well under the helmet. If your nose gets frozen pick up a Balaklava.
• Never wear a cotton base layers. As once moist you feel cooler. Pick synthetic full sleeves and wear a full forearm warmer on top of it.
• Water n windproof pants are available, but might get uncomfortable, as they are similar to rain pants. I use full leg warmer pants and wear my regular biking shorts on top for padding comfort.

Bike accessories: Winters come along with shorter days thence lights & reflectors are very important. Your winter jacket and pants should have reflectors at the same time you must use reflective bands at ankle and arms.

• Waterproof bag is good if you bike to work, and red flashing lights mounted under bike seat and your bag helps in visibility of you while on the road.
• Front white lights are available in LEDs and bulbs which must be flashing.
• Fenders… they not only help your shoes to be clean from tangential sprays of mud n water but also keep the person behind you safe.

Bike Maintenance: Water rusts your chain so make sure to lubricate them weekly. Mud n dirt gets stuck to your brake shoes and wheel rim, clean them periodically.

Caution: Winter comes along in Seattle with black ice on the road. Leaves mixed with water n dirt, and any metallic rails or manhole covers may be icy and slippery. Ride slow and careful. Try to use familiar routes, and while going downhill lean a little backwards to balance better. If possible use thinker tires on your road bike for traction. Going too steep uphill in rains can be dangerous. If in doubt dismount and walk.

Post Biking Measures: Walk slowly in small steps. Its important as your toes might be a little numb. Do a little stretching to ease out. Get adapted to the room temperature before you step in the hot shower.

Happy biking….

Reads for the Yr 2009

2009 was wonderful for me (knock the wood) and hope for an even wonderful 2010. The year was full of wonderful beer and I am happy to say that I finally know what I love the most (Belgian Ales' and IPAs'). At the same time the year had a lot of great movies to offer, Inglorious Basterds, Defiance, Avatar, State of Play, GI Joes, Wolverine, Public Enemies are just some to name...

I am glad that I was able to steal time to read this year and today while arranging my bookshelf I recall the reads for 2009, along with the ratings in my opinion. I could have added the comments for each of 'em but that would be too much work and its already time to watch Cavs at Lakers ...!!!!

PS: Books hyperlinked to Amazon just in case... u need text review!!!

Title	Author	Rating
In light of India	Octavio Paz
The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture	John Battelle
Secure Programming with Static Analysis	Brian Chess
Will Work for Drugs	Lydia Lunch
White Fangs	Jack London
Call of the wild	Jack London
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster	Jon Krakauer
To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan	Nicholas Schmidle
Nisha Nimantran	Harivansh R Bachchan
The Selected Short Stories	O’ Henry
Best Kept secrets of peer code review	Jason Cohen
Rashmirathi	Raam Dhari Singh ‘Dinkar’
The Emperor's New Clothes: Exposing the Truth from Watergate to 9/11	Richard Ben Veniste
Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played	L Jon Werthiem
The Road to Woodstock	Michael Lang
Siddhartha	Hermen Hesse
JBoss in Action: Configuring the JBoss Application Server	Javid Jamae, Peter Johnson
White Tiger	Aravind Adiga
Winter in Kandahar	Steven E. Wilson
The Teeth May Smile but the Heart Does Not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda	Andrew Rice

are you 21…?

Age verification pages on websites ridicule me. Not because they are an extra step to reach the content, instead its a moronic attempt to keep underage kids away. The only analogy i can present here is a 4 ft fat belly 70 yr old bouncer guarding the door of a strip club who doesn’t realize that he is has been just slapped by a 17 yr old. I am not sure but I think since every brewery & distillery has this verification script on their portal its some govt law or regulation… so they are definitely not at fault but I cant resist myself from cursing the authorities who make it mandatory.

Who are they trying to shoo away with this…? People who live in constant fear that some legal org is monitoring their surfing habits or the underage? If later… yes these are the same kids who know how to bypass the childlocks on your DVR and who know how to check their fathers browsing history.

ahh c’mon Century Council you are nothing else but another illogical org like PETA… at least on this ground for sure.

Tickles from Seattle - 9

Discussion on ethics of making money. The plan presented is a well crafted business model based out of auction, inspired from a study from the class of political lobbying.

MG : So how about if we start auctioning deals, where you pay to place a bid and the highest bidder in the end wins the deal.

JL: Thats unethically shrewed and mean, and is clearly a strategy to fool a naive user.

AA: I dont agree to this. Anything with in the limits of law and presented with a well crafted fine print that can lead me to that extra buck in my pocket is absolutely ethical. So whats the plan and when are we doing it?

PS: The inspiring lecture under discussion: