Flow of Data in Cognos Powerpaly Transformer 7.4

over 2 years ago | Abhishek Dharga: Learning and sharing

Use Transformer to create structured models from various data sources that you then distribute as multidimensional PowerCubes.
You begin by assessing your source data and planning how to organize it to support the types of
business analysis that are important to you. You then build a model that specifies the location of
this data, and the way you want Transformer to restructure it. Finally, you create a PowerCube to distribute to your PowerPlay Enterprise Server administrator or to your PowerPlay users, who can then create reports to distribute to other PowerPlay or Upfront users.

Everybody loves Hanuman by Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik

over 2 years ago | Abhishek Dharga: Learning and sharing

Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik written this article . Its an amazing must read.........

Published in Corporate Dossier, Economic Times supplement, 4 April 2008

Hanuman plays an important role in the Ramayan, yet in the epic itself, he does not hold any great position. He is just one of the many monkeys Ram encounters in the forest. He is not Sugriva, leader of the monkey troop. He is not Angad, who is told to lead the band of monkeys searching for Sita. He is not Jambavan, the bear or Nila, the monkey, who are given the responsibility of building the bridge. He is projected as an obedient follower who, through his intelligence, strength and courage, wins the admiration of Ram and emerges as one of the most revered characters of the tale and a god in his own right. But at no point does Hanuman make any attempt to steal anyone’s glory; while in his own temple he stands powerful with mountain in hand and feet on a demon, in Ram’s temple he is most content sitting at the feet of his master, hands in supplication.

Who would not want a Hanuman in his team? One who is very good at his work, one who will do whatever he is told to do, one who will never seek either reward or recognition and one who finds validation in obeying his master.

If we go to Raju’s auto repair shop, we will find that all the work is done by his Hanuman: Amol, a young boy, who has been working with Raju for three years. Amol is a natural, able to fix the most complex of problems. Raju knows he can totally rely on Amol. No job is too big or too small for Amol. He is as happy changing a tyre, as he is fixing the brakes. He does not boss over the juniors and does not feel slighted if the seniors ask him to fetch tea. If there is a problem that eludes a standard solution, everyone knows that leave it to Amol – he will, like Hanuman crossing the sea, find a way.

Yes, it matters greatly to have a Hanuman in our team. One who will not question you. One who will do exactly what you tell him to do. One who delivers no matter what the odds. One who is loyal and devoted. But is that really good?

The following is a folk story of Hanuman: Hanuman once narrated the entire Ramayan to his mother, Anjani. After the narration, an impressed Anjani sought a clarification. “You are so strong that with a flick of a tail you could have destroyed the whole of Lanka, killed Ravan and rescued Sita. Why did you not do so? So much effort and time would have been saved – you would not have had to build a bridge to Lanka, you could have avoided the war. Why did you not do that?”

Hanuman replied, “Because Ram never asked me to.”

And suddenly we wonder if this was opportunity lost. Hanuman was asked to discover Sita’s location; he did that. Hanuman was asked to fetch the mountain of herbs that would save Lakshmana’s life; he did that. No one asked him to destroy the Rakshasas and rescue Sita. Do he did not do that. One common explanation given for why Ram never asked Hanuman to kill Ravan and rescue Sita is that it was Ram’s duty to rescue Sita, not Hanuman’s. Ramayan is about Ram, not Hanuman. But it is not so in the corporate world; the story is about the entire organization, not just about the leaders.

In the entire epic, Hanuman proves his capability time and time again. On his way to find Sita, he displays his extraordinary power (crosses the ocean), brain (outwits the snake-demon Surasa), brawn (kills Simhika) and integrity (not resting on Mandara mountain). And yet, while everyone admires this, no one seems eager to take full advantage of it. Was this refusal to take advantage of Hanuman’s abilities a divine decision or merely a oversight? Is the same being done in the corporate world?

Yes, Raju loves Amol’s work. Yes, Raju admires Amol’s work. But is Raju harnessing the full potential of Amol? Is his contentment with Amol’s obedience preventing him from seeing all that Amol can do, proactively, creatively, independently, if he is given the freedom to do so? Ask Raju and he will say, “But I don’t stop Amol from doing anything.” He does not stop Amol from doing anything, but he does not encourage Amol from doing something either.

The greatest danger of having Hanumans in our team is that his actions are limited by our directions. Maybe we fear that if Hanuman thinks for himself, there will be chaos – he is a monkey after all. Maybe we fear that he will overshadow us. Hence, ultimately, only we decide the goals, we define the vision, we declare the mission and state the objective. Our Hanuman will help you realize all this. But, maybe, the goals could have been greater and grander, if we had let Hanuman do more than merely obey.

Amol once had given Raju a suggestion. “Sir, if we park our cars perpendicular to the wall rather than parallel we can keep more cars in the garage?” Raju ignored this suggestion. “Do you work,” he snapped at Amol without giving his words much thought. But the message he implicitly gave Amol was that – ‘I only want your obedience, not your intelligence.’ Amol immediately complied. And that marked the end of Amol’s creativity that would have perhaps made Raju’s auto repair shop a much greater success.

This is the danger of over compliance and extreme obedience. We prevent followers from thinking and contributing. It makes business sense therefore to take a closer look at the Hanumans in our team; we just might find in their hearts a Ram waiting to be coaxed out.

http://devdutt.com/everybody-loves-hanuman

Attended BusinessObjects Information Management Services Academy, Oct 5-8 2009

over 2 years ago | Bhargav Gandhi: AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

This week, I attended a workshop organized by BusinessObjects Information Management Servicess Academy. It was a four days hands-on workshop with BusinessObjects consultants flying in from Australia and Singapore. There were professionals from other System Integrators as well.

How To Use BusinessObjects Data Services in SAP BI staging process

over 2 years ago | Bhargav Gandhi: AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Some time back I had published a wiki page on SAP SDN on how BusinessObjects Data Services platform can be used with SAP BI. The same page has been published on SAPTechnical.com. The direct links can be found below -

SDN Wiki Page

SAPTechnical.com

My First Travelogue (Day 3)

over 2 years ago | Surbhi Bhati: Clean Desk, Jammed drawers

(September 28)-> A very uncomfortable overnight bus journey dropped us in Manali via Kullu. Kullu and Manali are great hill stations in their own and given a choice we would have spent at least a day there. But limited office leaves made sure we dint rest till we reach Leh. So we took couple of rooms in Manali, just for freshening up. We set out for fixing up a taxi to Leh and eventually settled for a Tata Sumo (not that we had many choices; 8 of us and the tough terrain till Leh).
We were introduced to our driver “Sanju”. One look at him and I got a feeling that this is going to be an interesting journey ;-) Dressed in a rugged jeans and t-shirt with an ear-piercing and a thin plait amongst the otherwise short hair, Sanju promised to make us reach Leh by 29 evening despite of starting a little late. So around 11.30 in morning we started from Manali to Leh. Manali-Leh is a distance of 475 KM. Though not much, the journey is completed in 2 days, with an overnight halt. From our research we knew that the road was in bad condition at most places but the scenic beauty along the route is what makes it worth the pain. Still nothing could prepare us for the Manali-Leh highway with Sanju on the driving seat.
Our first obscure was when we were blocked for about an hour due to road-cutting before Rohtang; our first pass of the journey. The Manali-Leh-Shrinagar highway is maintained by Border Road Organization, which is an Indian army undertaking. It was around 3 in the afternoon when we reached Rohtang Pass and experienced the first chill. At most times the road was non-existing and we found ourselves travelling trough highest mountains, with our car being on the edge every now and then. Sanju knew many shortcuts through the road and that made our journey more adventures and bumpier at the same time. It’s not allowed to travel on the highway in night so we made our halt at the last village in Himachal Pradesh called Jespa. Jespa was beautiful like a dream, surrounded with mountains on the bank of Bhaga river. The temperature was chilling cold and we had to fight for a couple of rooms in the only guest house in the village. Anyway, after a hot-water bath and some comforting food, falling asleep was not very tough.
P.S -> Night halt on Manai-Leh highway is usually done at Sarchu or Pang. Since we started late, we had to halt before Sarchu at Jespa. If you are likely to hit similar situation, make sure to get the rooms booked in advance as there are only 2 guest houses at Jespa.

My First Travelogue (Day 2)

over 2 years ago | Surbhi Bhati: Clean Desk, Jammed drawers

(September 27) -> after crossing almost 7 states, we got down at Chandigarh around 5 in evening. From here we had a bus to Manali at 8.40 in night. One of our members had some relatives in Chandigarh and the Kukreja family was gracious enough to allow us spend a few hours at their place. Chandigarh is one of India’s very few planned cities and just traveling through its roads was a pleasure. I don’t remember how many sectors we crossed from Railway station to the Kukreja house (all crosses looked just the same to me). We dumped our luggage there and headed for prime attraction of Chandigrah “The Rock Garden”. Established in 1957, Rock Garden is actually a made of rubbish and junk. Created solely by a government employee Nek Chand, Rock Garden is a great model of modern art. Statues adorned with ceramic pieces, drums, iron wastage etc is disguised in a beautiful and interesting way over more than 43 acres of space. After spending just over an hour there, we headed back to the Kukreja’s where we were to have our dinner before catching our bus to Manali. Nice fellows let us wash our dirt, fed and even dropped us to the bus station. God bless them ;-)

My First Travelogue (Day 1)

over 2 years ago | Surbhi Bhati: Clean Desk, Jammed drawers

Day 1 (September 26)-> The first part of our journey to Leh was the train from Mumbai to Chandigarh. Paschim express had a depart time of 11 Am from Andheri station. We all huddled up on the platform quite before the train was to arrive. Standing where our coach was scheduled to halt, we realized that Chandigarh was on slip route. Slkip route means not all coaches of the train go to Chandigarh but only a few.This meant that our coach will actually be last in the train, but before we could realize this our train came. It had only 2 minutes halt at Andheri and with the entire luggage(13 bags for 8 of us, quite reasonable I had thought ;-)) we had a really tough time making it to our seats. A clear indication of how rest of the journey is going to be ;-)
In India people love their travel and since we were a large group, our seats were scattered in various compartments. So the next task was to make some insternal adjustments with other passangers so that we all could be together in one compartment. More that 50% passengers in Paschim express were senior citizens. If it was a coincidence, I dint understand. However that made our task tougher as the oldies were not very flexible for the shuffling we were trying to impose on them. Anyway our destination Chandigarh was not due in next 28 hours so we had plenty of time shifting others, making room for ourselves, playing cards and laughing at the drop of a hat. To be frank we were making so much noise that almost all others knew where we were going and some were even watching the movie guessing game we were playing.

My First Travelogue (Preparation)

over 2 years ago | Surbhi Bhati: Clean Desk, Jammed drawers

Everything is easier said than done, and our idea of a trip to Ladakh was no exception.
I was still under kind of a shock as to what made all these people ready for Ladakh and just a little bit of initial research was enough to make us realize that Ladakh is no cakewalk. However, it being a childhood dream and the tough adventure associated, made Ladakh so inviting for us that for the next 2 months we (me and Pre) pour our blood and soul in preparing ourselves. We went thorough every single URL on the Internet that had Ladakh written on it, joined various forums and read experience of those who’ve been there.
Some of us had a really hard time getting their leaves sanctioned but nothing could let our spirits down. Thousand emails were exchanged; various things like eatables, medicines and what not were bought, tickets were booked and all we wanted was the departure day to come.

My First Travelogue (Prologue)

over 2 years ago | Surbhi Bhati: Clean Desk, Jammed drawers

For many times in our lives we think of travelling to our dream destination, and then comes some important work assignment, some domestic emergency or some other problem out of the blue and our dream destination just remains a dream, yet to be fulfilled.

So when one lazy afternoon, a common friend of mine and my roommate’s (referred as Pre hereafter) proposed the idea of a vacation and I blurted out “Ladakh” just like that, I had no anticipation of it being ever fulfilled. But then, you never know what the destiny has in store for you and so we had 8 people ready for the idea of a trip to Leh-Ladakh.

What follows next is my first travelogue containing every single detail of how we planned this dream trip of ours, what hardship we faced before and during the trip and how we had the most joyous moments of our lives.

ruby and rails resources

over 2 years ago | Manohar Amrutkar: majestic rails

Ruby

Ruby-Language
Ruby Documentation
Ruby Support

Magazines:

The Rubyist
Rails Magazine

Code and Style:

Code and Style

Projects:

RubyGems
Rake

News:
Ruby Flow
Ruby Inside
Rails Inside

Videos:
Rails Casts
Ruby Libraries

Blogs:
Dave Thomas
Chad Fowler
Jim Weirich
Jamis Buck
Nathaniel Talbott
http://blog.grayproductions.net/
http://tim.theenchanter.com/
http://www.randquist.us/blog/
http://yehudakatz.com/
http://atmos.org/
http://squeejee.com/blog
http://blog.herdingtigers.com/
http://www.copiousfreetime.org/
http://blog.josephwilk.net/
http://evan.tiggerpalace.com/
http://satishtalim.com/
http://martinfowler.com/
http://www.chadfowler.com/
http://tomcopeland.blogs.com/
http://richkilmer.blogs.com/
James Golick
http://www.skorks.com/
http://blogs.thoughtworks.com/
http://testing.thoughtworks.com/
http://agileassessments.thoughtworks.com/

Productivity ?

over 2 years ago | Rohan Daxini: void TechFuels()

How would you define "Productivity" in a Software Development especially for Agile SCRUM ?

PL/SQL debugging information now a part of Oracle Enhanced Adapter v1.2.2

over 2 years ago | Alex Rothenberg: Common Sense Software

Raimonds Simanovskis has just published a version 1.2.2 of the Oracle Enhanced Adapter that includes the ability to capture dbms_output debug statements from your pl/sql code in the Rails log file. This is a bit of code that I wrote and blogged about a few months ago so not only do I think its useful but am very excited to have contributed to something many others use.

PL/SQL debugging information now a part of Oracle Enhanced Adapter v1.2.2

over 2 years ago | Alex Rothenberg: Common Sense Software

Raimonds Simanovskis has just published a version 1.2.2 of the Oracle Enhanced Adapter that includes the ability to capture dbms_output debug statements from your pl/sql code in the Rails log file. This is a bit of code that I wrote and blogged about a few months ago so not only do I think its useful but am very excited to have contributed to something many others use.