[ Sajith M ]

“The Hewlett-Packard Company is an equal opportunity employer” is what the site says, and that is what I used to believe till I got a few emails from a few job consultants about some .NET and UNIX positions with HP” with an added line “only female candidates can apply”

Now forget for a moment that fact that the people who sent me this email did not do their homework and sent me an email that is not related to what I do or what I want to do. A larger issue here would be “Is HP still an equal opportunity employer”? Or has there been a change in the policy of being an “equal opportunity employer”?

To me this sounds like gender bias, or discrimination based on gender. Would a female employee make a better .NET or Unix programmer than a male employee? If not, then is this not gender bias? While the logical answer would be that there is nothing that proves that female employees make better .NET or Unix programmers, maybe some secret HP research proves otherwise. Or maybe HP should just stop saying that it is an equal opportunity employer.

Update: Thanks to Nithin for pointing this out. This could have been mistake on the part of the consultants or on the part of HP. However, since I got similar mails (saying only female candidates can apply) from multiple consultants, I suspect that this is part of job description that went to the consultants from HP and not something that the consultants made up.

Posted under: Thoughts
Tagged with: discrimination, employee, equal opportunity, equal opportunity employer, female, gender, gender bias, Hewlett-Packard, HP, male

Here is something that the respected Times of India (Bangalore) had to reports

Why did Kafeel use a 320-GB hard drive?
It’s like a huge data bank, where files can be stored to access across the internet for downloading and uploading files. Normally a hard disk of such high capacity is used as a server. In other words, it has the capacity of a server used in publishing houses, where more than 50 computers/persons work simultaneously. It can host an internet site or work as a web server. It can be used to store thousands of picture files and video files What does Kafeel’s hard drive contain?

I don’t know how much of a terrorist Kafeel is, but I guess saying that only a terrorist can have a 320GB hard disk is plain crap. If having a 320GB hard disk on your home computer can make you a terrorist, guess I am a super-terrorist since I have a 500GB (460GB formatted capacity) disk :p

Posted under: Thoughts
Tagged with: hard disk, hard drive, Kafeel, terrorist, Times of India

Scott Adams has this very interesting post “Champagne Moments”

I just raise the bar for what would be the right moment, and tell myself how tasty it will be if I ever accomplish something special in my work. Apparently the thing inside me that makes me work so hard is the same thing that keeps me unsatisfied. It’s a package deal. The best you can hope for is a family that understands.

Something makes me say “so very true”, well read the complete post here.

Posted under: Thoughts

We all thought that the foot-in-the-mouth disease is limited to the President of United States. But looks like India is not lagging behind…

First the purdah controversy, and now the statement “We are also thinking of forcible sterilisation for people with hereditary diseases.”

Wow, this lady (Pratibha Patil) sure knows what she is talking about. Maybe foot in the mouth disease will soon spread to Rashtrapathi Bhavan too…

Update: She can talk to dead people as well.

Posted under: Thoughts , Politics
Tagged with: Pratibha Patil, President, Rashtrapathi Bhavan

In the secret language of corruption in India, an official expecting a bribe will ask for Mahatma Gandhi to “smile” at him. The revered leader of the independence movement is on all denominations of rupee notes.

With rampant dishonesty ingrained in the bureaucratic culture, an anticorruption group has decided to interpret the euphemism literally by issuing a zero-rupee note.

A direct copy of the 50-rupee note, including Gandhi’s portrait, it is designed to be handed out to officials who demand backhanders.

In the place of the usual promise of redemption by the central bank governor, the new pledge is: “I promise to neither accept nor give bribe.”

The Times Report: Can this note stamp out corruption in a land where it’s the norm? via kottke.org

Posted under: Thoughts

If you thought caste based reservations were a bit too much, now sample this: Tamil Nadu government has announced exclusive reservations for Christians and Muslims in government services and educational institutions. (Link)

As is we have had enough of this dammed reservation happening in all walks of life. Till now we had reservation based on the caste, and now based on religion. Why the hell can’t people compete on merit instead of asking for the crutches of reservation. And why are these politicians hell bent on dividing the country on the basis of caste and religion?

Posted under: Thoughts , Reservation
Tagged with: caste, religion, Reservation

The subject was to be introduced to create AIDS awareness, but school-going children are too young to contract the disease. It will unnecessarily affect their tender minds.

This is what the Karnataka Minister for primary and secondary education Basavaraj Horatti had to say about the decision not to introduce sex education. Now, I am left wondering if the minister needs some education (read the emphasized part of the quote) before he opens his mouth in public again.

Posted under: Thoughts , Sex And Sexuality
Tagged with: AIDS, Karnataka, sex education

Hi,

Okay, so there are no demonstrations, no call for a strike, no threats of self-immolation, nothing, nothing at all… This is disappointing. Guess, I am to be blamed for this sad situation. I should have done better to publicize this event. Looks like despite my best attempts at spreading this news, not everyone has come to know about it. Well, better late than never, so here is this (spam) post to tell you that today is/was my last working day at Stylus.

1336 days back, I joined Stylus as a PHP developer (yes, you heard it right – PHP and not .NET). For the last (almost) four year, I was multi-tasking to my best abilities (phew, its tiring). I could be chatting with someone while being on the phone and checking those really funny forwarded emails or all the blogs that I am subscribed to. If this is not multi-tasking, wonder what will be… And oh, I forgot to mention – work.

No, am not saying that I will work while chatting, being on the phone, or reading those emails. Hey, am not that irresponsible to mix them up, so I would not work while I was busy with anything else (which was 80% of the time). Btw, 20% of my time at office was reserved for lunch and tea breaks.
The remaining time, I would be busy with work and only work. No wonder then that when I told Ranjit that I am supposed to be working for him, he immediately went looking for a dictionary and was for some strange reason looking very closely at the meaning of the word work. Guess he wanted to find a superlative for work, so that he could use that to describe me.

Moving away from Stylus was a tough decision. Life will be boring for some time. I will not be able to glance at the latest cricket score while walking around (specifically, I will miss all you guys who keep crickinfo always open). Will not be able to get the daily dose of latest movies and songs provided by Suthin. Will not have Anish to provide the latest updates on Chennai. Will not have Vinod to provide marital advice. Will not have Rama’s jukebox playing music. Amongst all this gloom, the only silver line I see is that I will not be around creating trouble for you guys ;-)

On a serious note though, it has been a great 4 years (well almost) that I spent at Stylus and its been fun. I will miss you guys, you guys rock!

–
Sajith M <+91-9980590846>

http://blog.sajithm.com/

Posted under: Thoughts

So finally some sense has prevailed and the Supreme Court has stayed the central law providing for 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes.

Its a good judgement, and hopefully will go a long way in making sure that merit and not caste is the deciding factor for admission in institutions of higher education.

Link

Posted under: Thoughts , Reservation
Tagged with: caste, merit, Reservation

Air Deccan is a great airline. After reading my previous posts (Air Deccan – Simpli cheat and Air Deccan – Simpli unsafe), you might be thinking that I am kidding, but no I am serious. Air Deccan is a great airline. This airline does so many things for its passengers – cheating, bending of safety norms, crazy rescheduling and other such nice things. This airline can do it all, except perhaps for flying you to your destination.

Wow, don’t think there is much left that they can do to screw up the passengers. And what surprises me is that despite all this (and thousands complaining/ranting about it), this airline continues to operate…

Posted under: Thoughts
Tagged with: Air Deccan, cheating, rescheduling, safety