My early days in NCR are like early days of GIKI.. Too much assignments with no knowledge of what to do and how to do what we think we have to do.. The day we got our laptops , we were assigned some 14 web based courses without enough information on "HOW TO DO THEM".. much of the time (in hours) was spent in "how to learn" instead of "learning".. and there were some other BIG delays (again in hours) which were caused by "OH! how to set up things on this laptop" .."I am having some difficulties in installing the Easy SET UP CDs".. "Do we have to study the courses told by the HR guy or the courses recommended by the NCR University" , "Err.!!! I passed the course test but my course status is still the same"... so in the start things were really messed up.. Now , things are going on a good track , still there is a problem of "OK... i know how to write this SQL statement, but does any one here know how to run the program that runs it..and how do i start the database server on my PC"..there are so many things/tools which we have to use for our learning but we are not very clear on how to use them and it is expected from us that we will not be needing any time to learn the these tools ..and if an instructor uses a software tool in a flashy speed then we are supposed to learn all the configurations and names etc. that he changes in some microseconds..
Anyway, the training is going good.. The teacher is great...only problem is that he says that we are not supposed to believe in every thing that he says..as he can be wrong in telling us many things.. so we are roughly getting the idea as to what is important and what is not by getting the idea of our instructor's amount of knowledge about it. but then there are times when we have to hear "ok.. now this topic is really important but i am skipping it for you people"... argh!!!!!..
The training is not without regular evaluation. We had a test two days ago and then we had a test yesterday..
FIRST TEST
The first test was to write an SQL query.. We had to do it in teams (not of our choice).. I was grouped with the only bearded guy of the batch who bluntly says that he doesnt know how to write the basic SQL commands.. .. The time provided to write down the given query was spent in understanding how to open the software required to run the query , how to run the server for it , understanding the reasons of getting the USER HAS NO ACCESS PERMISSIONS TO USE THE DATABASE error and searching the right table in the database that could give us the revenue generated by the customers...arghh!! We had to find the coulumns that could give us the revenue and we were not sure wether to multiply the product id with its price or the order number with the discounted price...Me and the bearded guy aka Naveed had a tough time together as we started fighting each other initially .. the fight ended when i told him to do things individually.... :). The marks that we got at the end of the test were only the grace marks.. as we were not able to run the query till the end.
SECOND TEST
We had the second test yesterday. Me and the bearded guy , Naveed "had to" team up again..and this time things went great.. We did ok in the verbal testing section..and later My little practice in SQL along with Naveed's efficient searching of the functions used in the end part of the query saved the day ... It was really fun.. Both of us couldnt really believe that we had really executed a query completely written by us... The test was annouced a few days ago and we were not afraid of the test as we were both sure that we will fail it..but in the end the query executed perefectly and not only that it gave the required output , we were also able to give its justification .. The test has given me confidence and it has also made me to realize the importance of team work.
with time i am learning things....and i hope i will do great in NCR.. people seem good.....The daily ranking of all the people in the batch is shown in the class daily and it gives me a real hope.. i am improving... :)
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Life is tough but seems under control
Well.. even though there is a laptop , there are two very important requirements that go along with it to be a regular blogger: Free time and peace of mind...am not having any of these two these days.. so my chronicles from 23rd Dec continue in an integerated from follow :
24th Dec Saturday
I went to Giki to attend the alumni reunion. was accompanied by OC , my Final year project partner who is currently doing an MS leading to PHD degree from Sydney , University of New South WAles..
I had a good time in Giki. The new rector seems to be a good person and it seems that finally someone caring has taken the high post at Giki.. Giki is still the same old peaceful place that made me fall in love with it years ago..
25th Dec Sunday.
Laziness prevailed the whole day. I went to see Champ , Javaid , a batch mate who is suffering from TB. spent the whole afternoon with him . Later i took Vix , who had come to champs place to see him, to Nomi's place as they had to go to Amir Farooq's Marriage. It was really fun finding the way to F11 from G-10 . I had to do some heavy reading on this weekend but it ended too quickly.
26th Dec (Mnday) till 29th Dec (Thursday)
The days pass very quickly once the working days jump in life..with not much social activities , my main focus remained on learning things in NCR... The training is still going on..I had a real tough time in giving the SQL paper.. and now that i have passed it today, i still need a lot of practice work to get it fluent on my fingers. My princess subaru (my car) is giving me real tough as it refuses to do anything at all everymorning. and this makes me make a travel to the office on taxi. On monday and tuesday, i had to leave it near a busy road as it wasnt starting in the morning and i had already availed all my oppertunitites to go late to office. Even now , the princess is there at home and now that i will go home i will try to start it again.. My flatmates have started to call "Suba ru, Sham ru). translation: Shed tears in the morning , Shed tears in the evening.. The name does go with the kind of feelings one gets as the owner of the car.
Islamabad rocked again last night at 3 am. My night was disturbed realy badly . one of the flate mate lost his senses and started shouting..It was a terrible scene..I am not sure what really happened as i didnt get this chance to inquire anything later as my flatemates were asleep while i was coming office this morning.. ..These day I am bumping into a lot of people having psychologic disorders. and what my research tells me is that motst of these cases always have an association with some kind of disturbance in sleep-wake cycle. When human mind doesnt get enough sleep , some harmonal balances occur which make the brain to malfunction.
I too get some strange feelings when my sleep-wake cycle gets disturbed ,these include extreme sensitivity to the weather (i.e extreme coldness in winter , extreme hotness in summers) , pain in knee (coupled with the 'in.travel ' condition ) , and the best one is that i keep laughing the whole day.. yeah! its true. an insufficient sleep really makes my day sometimes.. :)
24th Dec Saturday
I went to Giki to attend the alumni reunion. was accompanied by OC , my Final year project partner who is currently doing an MS leading to PHD degree from Sydney , University of New South WAles..
I had a good time in Giki. The new rector seems to be a good person and it seems that finally someone caring has taken the high post at Giki.. Giki is still the same old peaceful place that made me fall in love with it years ago..
25th Dec Sunday.
Laziness prevailed the whole day. I went to see Champ , Javaid , a batch mate who is suffering from TB. spent the whole afternoon with him . Later i took Vix , who had come to champs place to see him, to Nomi's place as they had to go to Amir Farooq's Marriage. It was really fun finding the way to F11 from G-10 . I had to do some heavy reading on this weekend but it ended too quickly.
26th Dec (Mnday) till 29th Dec (Thursday)
The days pass very quickly once the working days jump in life..with not much social activities , my main focus remained on learning things in NCR... The training is still going on..I had a real tough time in giving the SQL paper.. and now that i have passed it today, i still need a lot of practice work to get it fluent on my fingers. My princess subaru (my car) is giving me real tough as it refuses to do anything at all everymorning. and this makes me make a travel to the office on taxi. On monday and tuesday, i had to leave it near a busy road as it wasnt starting in the morning and i had already availed all my oppertunitites to go late to office. Even now , the princess is there at home and now that i will go home i will try to start it again.. My flatmates have started to call "Suba ru, Sham ru). translation: Shed tears in the morning , Shed tears in the evening.. The name does go with the kind of feelings one gets as the owner of the car.
Islamabad rocked again last night at 3 am. My night was disturbed realy badly . one of the flate mate lost his senses and started shouting..It was a terrible scene..I am not sure what really happened as i didnt get this chance to inquire anything later as my flatemates were asleep while i was coming office this morning.. ..These day I am bumping into a lot of people having psychologic disorders. and what my research tells me is that motst of these cases always have an association with some kind of disturbance in sleep-wake cycle. When human mind doesnt get enough sleep , some harmonal balances occur which make the brain to malfunction.
I too get some strange feelings when my sleep-wake cycle gets disturbed ,these include extreme sensitivity to the weather (i.e extreme coldness in winter , extreme hotness in summers) , pain in knee (coupled with the 'in.travel ' condition ) , and the best one is that i keep laughing the whole day.. yeah! its true. an insufficient sleep really makes my day sometimes.. :)
Friday, December 23, 2005
Life seems to be going somewhat tough
I changed my job and this became a very big change.. which is effecting my personal life a lot.. After serving in PTA for an year , i shifted to NCR to get my self occupied in work all day.. Since they have provided a laptop now, i guess it will be easy for me to update my blogs.. but then again there is a fear that i might not be able to continue my routine things , let alone this rarely practiced blogging activity...
Anyways, i had planned to start my blogging during this switching from PTA to NCR.. could'nt do it on time as internet access and free time is a pre-req to it. Roughly , i planned to write the following things in my daily blogs.
12 Dec 2005 Monday
Today was my last day at PTA. Am going to join NCR on 15th so i am leaving it 2 days earlier so that i may have some rest .. My resignation has been accepted and my notice period of one month has been waived off as well.. Thanks to the Chairman. I also got this chance to meet the Chairman.. This being my 2nd and probably last meeting with him. I told him a few things that are not right in the PTA He listened to me in a manner that i really felt that he was listening, noted some points and the meeting ended. I was happy that i told him ab out all my frustrations that i had in PTA during all the time there.
13 Dec Tuesday.
Well.. It came as no surprise to me that i had to go to PTA again to clear a few things about my job of "type approval" to Noman Jelani, the guy who is going to get the heay burden of all my job responsibilities along with his own.
14 Dec..
had some rest.. did some important stuff that was pending for long..went PTA at night when every one had left and only Taimoor was there helping Umair in making his presentation on "Network Security".
15 and 16th
Today I joined NCR...along with 6 other people.. All software guys...5 guys two girls.. The first day at NCR was great..No work to do.. We all chatted the whole day.. Topics Ranged from Animals to type of people to Jinns..etc...
17th (sat) and 18th(sun)
In my effort to be very efficient , I Read the Teradata Student Manual 1.. Just read it without understanding. Though i know something goes somewhere and is retrieved later at some stage.. spent my whole weekend on it .
19th.. (mon)
Again some free time at NCR.. setup a laptop for another guy..as they had not provided me mine..
Two more guys joined our batch at NCR ..again...both are software guys...
20th (Tue)
Got my own laptop...It was a real problem installing things on it.. really took the whole day.. also started NCR University courses. which are web based courses and one has to do it through flash based menus that involve testing along teaching..
21st and 22nd
Continued with NCR University courses . Most of the time was spent in learning things related to our login , our laptop setup and courses completion procedures.
23rd Dec Friday
Tera data factory started.. Its a instructor led class..which has got humongous amount of knowledge..an amount that a sane human brain can not store normally ..
The workshop ended near 6:30..and by now all the batch has got the idea that things are not going to be too easy..especially for me as the electronics background and no proper software background is really gonna make me put nights efforts...I guess its a bad time for me to start blogging.. but i guess now that I have got a laptop i should make a real proper use of it by enjoying my writings.
Anyways, i had planned to start my blogging during this switching from PTA to NCR.. could'nt do it on time as internet access and free time is a pre-req to it. Roughly , i planned to write the following things in my daily blogs.
12 Dec 2005 Monday
Today was my last day at PTA. Am going to join NCR on 15th so i am leaving it 2 days earlier so that i may have some rest .. My resignation has been accepted and my notice period of one month has been waived off as well.. Thanks to the Chairman. I also got this chance to meet the Chairman.. This being my 2nd and probably last meeting with him. I told him a few things that are not right in the PTA He listened to me in a manner that i really felt that he was listening, noted some points and the meeting ended. I was happy that i told him ab out all my frustrations that i had in PTA during all the time there.
13 Dec Tuesday.
Well.. It came as no surprise to me that i had to go to PTA again to clear a few things about my job of "type approval" to Noman Jelani, the guy who is going to get the heay burden of all my job responsibilities along with his own.
14 Dec..
had some rest.. did some important stuff that was pending for long..went PTA at night when every one had left and only Taimoor was there helping Umair in making his presentation on "Network Security".
15 and 16th
Today I joined NCR...along with 6 other people.. All software guys...5 guys two girls.. The first day at NCR was great..No work to do.. We all chatted the whole day.. Topics Ranged from Animals to type of people to Jinns..etc...
17th (sat) and 18th(sun)
In my effort to be very efficient , I Read the Teradata Student Manual 1.. Just read it without understanding. Though i know something goes somewhere and is retrieved later at some stage.. spent my whole weekend on it .
19th.. (mon)
Again some free time at NCR.. setup a laptop for another guy..as they had not provided me mine..
Two more guys joined our batch at NCR ..again...both are software guys...
20th (Tue)
Got my own laptop...It was a real problem installing things on it.. really took the whole day.. also started NCR University courses. which are web based courses and one has to do it through flash based menus that involve testing along teaching..
21st and 22nd
Continued with NCR University courses . Most of the time was spent in learning things related to our login , our laptop setup and courses completion procedures.
23rd Dec Friday
Tera data factory started.. Its a instructor led class..which has got humongous amount of knowledge..an amount that a sane human brain can not store normally ..
The workshop ended near 6:30..and by now all the batch has got the idea that things are not going to be too easy..especially for me as the electronics background and no proper software background is really gonna make me put nights efforts...I guess its a bad time for me to start blogging.. but i guess now that I have got a laptop i should make a real proper use of it by enjoying my writings.
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