Archive for February 2007
i was trying to think of a celebratory follow up post and i thought i’d steal an idea from one of my favorite guys…
15 Comments for a picture can say it all
jose | February 21, 2007 at 8:36 am
Li | February 21, 2007 at 11:29 am
This picture cracks me up b/c it symbolizes all that is wrong with the Bush Administration. Of course, I’m getting mixed messages from you. Are you expressing celebration or self-mockery b/c really, GWB’s mission still isn’t accomplished?
Author comment by Kireet | February 21, 2007 at 12:19 pm
i don’t know what’s confusing, I’m just taking my cues from a great uhmurkin heero.
Nina | February 21, 2007 at 1:18 pm
I can’t believe you beat the cartoon guy. No offense, it’s just – it’s CARTOONS, man! Could this be an indication of childhood innocence (Kireet Khurana’s cartoon site) losing out to adult cynacism (Kireet Reddy’s cheeky blog)? 
nhi | February 22, 2007 at 12:21 am
i would check out the other kireet’s cartoons and respond to nina, but i don’t want to catapult the other kireet’s ratings.
Li | February 22, 2007 at 10:38 am
spoken like a true “stand by your man” woman
Nina | February 22, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Is this you (Kireet Reddy) too?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A226YNAX2OWCU4?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview
Nina | February 22, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Kireet Reddy, I think we can help Kireet Reddy get on the google search list for Kireet Reddy by starting all our comments with “Kireet Reddy” even if we are not addressing Kireet Reddy directly but writing in response to another commenter of Kireet Reddy’s blog.
Kireet Reddy, maybe the search engines don’t work like that though? I don’t know, I’m not techie like Kireet Reddy.
Not Kireet Reddy (nhi) | February 22, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Kireet Reddy, maybe if we refer to everyone else as ‘not Kireet Reddy (name of person)’ and sign off as ‘not Kireet Reddy (not Kireet Reddy)’ maybe that will work too?
Nina | February 22, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Kireet Reddy, I just did a google search of “Kireet Reddy” and you are now listed as #3 for “Kireet Reddy” google search! Kireet Reddy is only behind Amazon.com Kireet M. Reddy who quite possibly could be yourself which means you ARE #1 on the Kireet Reddy google search, just not for the site you were hoping for.
bu Kireet Reddy (jose) | February 22, 2007 at 4:46 pm
I think the amazon Kireet Reddy (not Kireet Reddy who is an Amazon, or Kireet Reddy who is from Amazon, although it is doubtful that the Reddy clan ventured there) is the same Kireet Reddy that we know. Will the real Kireet Reddy please stand up?
Author comment by Kireet | February 22, 2007 at 11:44 pm
the amazon review is by me. please, stop the insanity! remember we (Kireet Reddy and readers) are *not* trying to get to the top for “Kireet Reddy”.
Sincerely,
Kireet Reddy
Nuvvu Kireet Reddy, Nenu Nina | February 23, 2007 at 10:57 am
Kireet Reddy, I could not find the Telegu word for “Not”. So hopefully I found the right words for “You” (Nuvvu) and “I” (Nenu). If not, you may blame this site: http://www.languageshome.com/English-Telugu.htm
Kireet Reddy, Nenu Nina supposes it would be fruitless to ask The Collective to put “Operation: Catapult Kireet Reddy” to a vote; therefore, I humbly cease and desist further attempts.
nhi | February 28, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Against all odds, kireetreddy.com is also now the #1 result for “kireet reddy”. Can we get a loop of “Final Countdown” again? Is this what it feels like when you have only one row left on a level 5 sudoku puzzle?
Pallu | February 28, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Other people hitting major milestones are the TN basketball teams. Memphis, Vanderbilt, and Tenn. are on a roll! Granted these teams accomplishments are just silly compared to the giant strides by kireetreddy.com, I wanted to give my people a shout out!
Kireet, could you post a March Madnes topic. I think it would be fun for all of us to make our predictions!
Add comment.
(start music, loop unashamedly)
kireetreddy.com is now the #1 hit on google when searching for kireet! i don’t even know what to say (write?), it’s hard to believe this is really happening. And all it took was a few random posts, some witty commenters, some shy lurkers, and minor surgery to make my dreams come true. So what now? Well, kireetreddy.com is nowhere to be found in a google search for “Kireet Reddy”, but I am not sure I want to shoot for that. First, I want to be happy with what I have and second, I would need to litter my site with “Kireet Reddy” all over the place instead of Kireet. You might ask, “Kireet, isn’t this post doing just that, putting Kireet Reddy all over your site so a google search for Kireet Reddy will turn up kireetreddy.com so people looking for Kireet Reddy will find you (Kireet Reddy)?” To that I would answer, “I (Kireet Reddy) suppose.”
Speaking of being happy with what you have, my mom was visiting this weekend and we met up with some extended family over the weekend. Some members still live in Hyderabad and my entire family is from there so it comes up a lot in conversation. Recently, it has gone through extensive changes due to the tech boom (second only to Bangalore). It was interesting to hear people discuss the tradeoffs of all the development and kind of coming to the conclusion that maybe more money isn’t always better even while their or their friends homes have appreciated 3 fold or more in 5-10 years. And also how issues there are starting to parallel those in the bay area (increasing disparity among social classes, high cost of living, population density).
So it made me think, when will money not be an issue in your life? Right now, I assume most people reading are trying to increase their earning capacity so they can live better and provide for their (potential) kids one day or just so they can buy better stuff. But suppose someone gives you 2 million dollars tomorrow. At first, you would be extremely happy, but then what do you do with the money? It’s not enough to retire on and then you have to start worrying about what to do with the money. let’s say you invest it. This just exacerbates any existing stress b/c generally this process involves taking on risk.
Now let’s say you were given 100 million dollars. Most people would just go nuts, all your problems are solved! You can buy a nice 10m house in pac heights or buckhead or queen anne (sorry shali, any nice neighborhoods in mobile?) and put it on auto-pilot right? Well, maybe you want to turn your family into a dynasty, so you need to turn your 90m remaining dollars into 900m. That involves stress. Or just things as simple as your kids going out to play, suddenly they (or even you) become prime kidnapping targets.
Leaving our hypothetical scenario, working for a living to get to 100m is even worse. Generally you have to be a performer of some kind, in which case you left behind any semblance of privacy long ago, or you are a businessman and need to keep shareholders/clients happy quarter after quarter.
so the sad thing is, unless you truly don’t care about money right this second, you will most likely always care about money (i.e. for the rest of your life). let that sink in for a second.
so how do we combat this? Well, you can be happy with what you have. This is pretty tough because it is not how our economy is set up and it is simply not human nature. In fact this tormenting restlessness is one of the main factors that has elevated civilization to where it is today. You can also try to just not care about money at all. This is pretty tough also. Usually you just have to be made that way (most aren’t) or have to go through some extremely dramatic event (cancer, etc.) to “put things in perspective”.
I think the easiest answer is just to accept that money will always be a concern. This somewhat alleviates any anxiety about accomplishing any high goals you might have set as well as lets you work on mitigating your stress. You can try to get a better salary at work, find an investment strategy that works for you, etc., etc. etc.
anyways, sorry for such a downer post on a joyous occassion, just play final countdown again and you’ll feel better. btw, hat tip for that goes to arrested development, the best show you’ve never seen. if you do watch it, get the DVDs and watch it straight through. it’s the only way to get most of the jokes.
2 Comments for success!
Li | February 20, 2007 at 4:24 pm
This is why no “communiist” country has ever achieved a true communist state and why Karl Marx failed in his experiment to achieve a communist state. I think that you just have to set goals and/or follow a path that is based on what is personnally important. I started a new job 2 months ago even though the salary was lower than what I could earn elsewhere, but the reason I took this job is b/c my role and responsibilities is a lot more interesting and challenging.
I hope that your mom had a nice visit. Did she leave you with some yummy homecooked meals?
jose | February 21, 2007 at 9:00 am
Too many things to talk about. Lets begin.
The declaration of mission accomplished in a war very similar to declaring success in this “war on terror”. Lets call it the “war on the engine” for the right leaning folk and the “charge of the k-brigade” for the poetically inclined. It does not imply the obvious if you are thinking about that.
This charge or war is open-ended, the prize is the supremacy of the search engine results and the enemy is constantly changing (khurana at this moment). But yeah. its been a fun ride and we will do our part to help beat the infidels. Congratulations!
On money, capitalism and communism, I think any doctrine that forces humans to behave counter to their behavior will not survive. Capitalism, I think, mimics base human instincts of self-development and that is why it has met with better success. Whether a completely de-regulated, free market is the answer in a world that is so heavily tilted towards favoring the rich, I am not sure. But, we are all trying to be rich or better than what we (again talking about the collective) and so I agree that accepting that is a better way to put ourselves at ease. I mention this because, we all want prosperity and we know that punishing the rich is hurting ourselves since we strive to be that..
Enough said, I have accepted that money will be the dictator of all things in life and having that high in the list of priorities is very important. This is different from a mindless pursuit but it is difficult to articulate how.
does your mom still leave with a supply of single serving size food bags? or is it two serving sizes now? those were really good, from what I remember
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on my last trip to the grocery store i bought some mayonnaise sold by “best foods”. then i bought some mustard sold by “fine foods”. i will report back on which is higher quality as it is unclear from the labelling. feel free to guess/make predictions.
also i would recommend that everyone watch the youtube video linked in jose’s comment to the previous post. it is hilarious.
3 Comments for condiments
jose | February 16, 2007 at 8:22 am
how big was the mayo jar? and how does it take to use the whole thing?
i got mayo and mustard jars one fine(?) day when i got inspired to make lunch sandwiches.. and after preparing two, i lost interest and eventually threw both out.. turns out those cold cuts are really bad for your health(not the reason for throwing away the condiments). the subway 6″ italian BMT has 1790 mg of Sodium not counting the condiments! the roast beef deli sanwich sets you back 660. and of course, the MSG is there as well.
does anyone know why across the board, salt is such an important taste component?
Pallu | February 17, 2007 at 1:29 pm
http://www.raincitycookingschool.com/article_salt.htm
Good question about salt. Above is a website that helped me some.
I think the store brand versus name brand dilemma depends on the product. I always buy Cheer for my detergent, but go for the Publix(local brand) for sugar. So I dont think your experiment is valid unless you compare the same type of product. Were you buying some condiments for your bacon sandwiches at your new job? Congratulations on your new job? Is Oracle giving you a big party for all your time and hardwork?
Author comment by Kireet | February 18, 2007 at 11:46 pm
yes as the article says, salt enhances other flavors, making any dish tastier unless you add so much that it tastes salty. fast food chains add too much salt to mask the use of poor/unhealthy ingredients and also make it somewhat addictive. i think if you make a sandwich yourself from regular deli meat like roast turkey it won’t be that bad.
pallu i think you are right, comparing mayo and mustard is like comparing apples and oranges. i bought the stuff for sandwiches in general; as of yet i am unsure of the bacon allocation at the new job.
Add comment.
As many of you know I have been looking for a new job recently. I liked the people at Oracle but I felt I wasn’t learning much new. My new company (as of the 26th I suppose) is called SignalDemand. They build economic models to help companies (mostly/all food companies) make pricing and production decisions. At first I was put off by a company that has slabs of bacon on its home page, but when I interviewed there I thought the people were good and the technology was interesting, so there you have it.
in other news, i think everyone saw that Obama has officially entered the 08 race. It will be interesting to see if he can keep up the hype. I am not sure where it came from; on news shows and in speeches he is not really emotional or fiery. he seems more of a pragmatist. maybe people like the fact that he seems genuine and intelligent. Anyways, we’ll see if he can hold up against the Clinton fundraising machine.
10 Comments for moving on
Nina | February 13, 2007 at 10:26 am
Congrats on your new gig!! Do you get slabs of bacon as part of your signing bonus?
Re: Obama – people like him b/c of the DNC in 2004 where he gave a fiery, inspirational speech, after which he was featured on the cover of Time magazine the following week. And then after that, I guess he just seemed like a nice guy who was the next bright hope for the Dems and genuinely interested in his constituents. Plus he wrote 2 books that are supposed to be really good and he’s been very open about his past troubles of his youth whereas most politicians try to hide all that. So he seems like a nice guy you can relate to who actually seems to care about you. And I think Oprah really likes him, and who can disagree with Oprah! 
Her opinion is gold, man!
Li | February 13, 2007 at 11:56 am
Congratulations! If the slabs of bacon are included in your signing bonus, what will Nhi “you can’t eat that b/c it has transfats” Tan do with it?
As for Obama, I like him b/c of his pragmatism and b/c he knows how to rally ppl to get things done. I really do hope that he can make it through this campaign season. My concern with Obama is that he is a lightweight; however, if we end up with Obama/Clinton ‘08, I think that we’ll have a well-balanced team.
nhi | February 13, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Hilary or Bill on the ticket? I doubt Hilary will want to take the VP role. Wonder if there is any precedent for a former Prez becoming VP in modern elections (not like back in the day when the loser of the race became the VP to the winner’s Prez). Wonder how a Hilary/Bill Ticket would do … ?
Obama’s MO (and strength) has always been a pragmatic centrist who knows how to connect with different views of the same diverse crowd. So his speeches have always been ‘I believe X, but think Y works’, where one group agrees with X and another agrees with Y. The net result is that everyone thinks he’s speaking for/to them.
Who would become President first:
Woman, Minority, or Non-Christian?
Nina | February 13, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Nhi actually has restrictions on what she will/will not eat??? Nhi, who videotaped all the food from the Hawaii reception, going not just once over the food, but TWICE and shooting close-ups of the dessert???
Nina | February 13, 2007 at 3:05 pm
For all those curious about Obama’s early years: http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=534
Author comment by Kireet | February 13, 2007 at 11:10 pm
maybe nina can become president and do all 3 at once. might have to stop with the silly faces though.
Author comment by Kireet | February 13, 2007 at 11:15 pm
i agree with nhi, i don’t think an obama/clinton ticket will happen. clinton might not want to step back to VP, but more importantly i think her polarizing influence would hurt obama’s appeal to moderate republicans. the other way around might work if hillary wins the primaries.
funny obama story, be sure to listen to the audio clip:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2006/11/2973_obama_to_report.html
Li | February 14, 2007 at 9:31 am
I know that Hillary will never be happy with the #2 position; however, in an ideal world, I think that Obama/Clinton would have a positive impact on our country.
Anyway, Nhi managed to convince herself that the desserts in Hawaii had no transfats that’s how she ended up with a nice plateful at the dessert buffet.
Nina | February 14, 2007 at 1:34 pm
The silly faces would appeal to my constituents. It would show the human side of me. 
jose | February 14, 2007 at 5:28 pm
first, congratulations! nice move, i must say.
on this whole o’bama saga, i saw this commercial for something (i won’t reveal) from Montgomery, Alabama -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiHaqCFQLxA
it is the best commercial.. not the worst
Add comment.
How far would you go for your loved one? From the astronaut story:
Inside the car, police found an a half dozen latex gloves, MapQuest directions from Houston to Orlando International Airport, e-mails from Shipman to Oefelein, diapers Nowak said she wore to reduce stops along the highway and a letter indicating how much she loved Oefelein.
Kidnapping, attempted murder, whatever, you’ve got to admire the effort.
6 Comments for dedication
jose | February 8, 2007 at 2:37 pm
I got news for you man. She kidnapped herself!
This clash has more fundamental overtones than you might think. Its a clash of the Navy and the Air Force.
Another thing that was quite humorous was when the alleged kidnapper was being brought to court and she was trying to hide her face with a coat or something.. I think Seinfeld made a reference to this in some episode but I always crack up when I see that happens (and it happens all the time)
Li | February 9, 2007 at 2:26 pm
What would Nhi do?
jose | February 9, 2007 at 4:20 pm
I think she would make the necessary stops on the highway. I am not sure about her views on gun ownership.
nhi | February 12, 2007 at 12:45 am
I believe everyone should have the right to protect themselves with a BB gun.
jose | February 12, 2007 at 7:53 am
from who? romantic adversaries?
Author comment by Kireet | February 12, 2007 at 3:49 pm
a bb gun is not going to protect you against much more than a squirrel or pigeon. so for everyone’s sake, let’s hope that excludes romantic adversaries.
Add comment.
quicksort is a computer science algorithm to, well, sort stuff quickly. You can wiki it for a full description. It is a pretty clever algorithm that virtually every CS major will cover in school, usually in depth. I mention it now because now it comes up a lot in interviews (also hashtables for any fellow software interviewees). In one sense it’s fairly strange to ask someone about this because this type of pattern rarely comes up in software engineering and it’s a different type of thought process that you use in your everyday life. On the other hand, if you can’t understand the basic idea of quicksort you probably won’t be a good software engineer.
However the reverse does not hold. Just because you can understand quicksort, or even implement it in your favorite programming language, does not mean you will be a good software engineer. It does show you have some capacity for abstract thought but it really doesn’t express how well you can build complex software architectures. And that is what computer engineers do on a day to day basis.
So is it a good question to ask? Yes and no. I would hold it against someone if they couldn’t really explain the algorighm well, but I probably wouldn’t if they didn’t quite dot every i or cross every t if I asked them to implement it (which I don’t when I interview someone). I am actually quite surprised that every interview usually has some CS algorithm component to it, yet almost no one really asks architectural problems or about design patterns. Especially since I am 7 years out of school and applying for senior positions.
Maybe readers can sound off, is there a “quicksort” in your profession? If you are a fairly established doctor interviewing for a position, do they still ask you how the knee bone is connected to the shin bone?
finally an update. I did interview with the Stanford professor (it went alright, he took it easy on me). We did the interview at the venture capital firm. You could smell the money there, very nicely furnished. They also brand their own water, which I got a kick out of. Here’s a picture:
5 Comments for quicksort
Vyshali | February 4, 2007 at 5:56 pm
I really doubt that well established doctors get asked technical questions unless maybe they are applying for a surgical field, and the question is more about what they think about the latest technique, and not necessarily if they are able to explain how to do it. Even from what I understand about residency interviews, the goal is to see what kind of person the interviewee is (e.g. is he a people person?). But what do I know? I’m not even a doctor yet!!
Pallu | February 4, 2007 at 9:24 pm
You bring up an intersting point about what are appropriate intereview questions. How can an interviewer possible get a true sense of your qualitfications in such a brief amount of time and with random questioning techniques? Does Kireet’s knowledge of quicksort give us any insight into his computer science abilites (BTW probably the only time I use quicksort in a sentence and Kireet knows his stuff). It makes me think about investment companies who ask their interviewees to solve the rubix cube. So someone can work under pressure, but I might need to know a little bit more before someone starts investing my money (my teacher salary is too much to handle alone haha). Also, the inteview can be misleading bc some people are just professional bsers. “Why yes, I have a great understand of quicksort. (what do you know I used it again). Its a fascinating algorithm and its essential for beginners, but let me tell you about the work I have been doing these days…. Okay, I am not a great schmoozer. However, I think it comes down to how you play the game rather than how well you know the game.
Kireet, did you take the picture of the bottle of water at the office or did you wait till you got home? Did the professor autograph it as well? That will be nify picture for your scrapbook!
Where are the kireetreddy.com responders? I miss your funny comments! Lets keep the ball rollin’!
Pallu | February 4, 2007 at 9:30 pm
I missed Vyshali’s comment before I responded! I sense a comeback in responses!
Author comment by Kireet | February 4, 2007 at 9:55 pm
i too wondered where the commenters were. i was beginning to think my posts were getting lost in cyberspace.
There is a very low BS factor in computer science interviews. When I interview someone, here is the drill:
1. I take a glance at the resume. Resumes are basically worthless. I just pick a project the person has worked on to see if their communication skills are up to snuff.
2. I give the interviewer a written test for 15 minutes. Yes, a written test. It consists of 2 puzzles, a few knowledge based questions, and then a couple design questions.
3. I come back and we go through the test. 15 minutes is not enough to really finish, I just want the person to check out each question and then talk them through to see how they think.
4. I ask them if they have any questions and pass them on to the next person.
Most people don’t give written tests, but you get asked the same sort of questions one after the other, so I thought it would be easier if I wrote them down and let the person answer them in whatever order they choose. Also it is becoming more common to have interviewee’s actually code a small program at the interview, usually not something terribly hard. This is actually a good thing. It is easy to spot bad engineers by examining their code. So you really can’t talk your way out of it. Questions have definite answers and avoiding the question is the same as not answering it. Only once did we interview a guy who just refused to answer puzzles, claiming he wasn’t good at them and we should concentrate on his positive qualities. He might as well have walked in with a dunce cap on.
Overall, I think technical interviews are probably very difficult compared to other professions. They are fairly impossible to study/prepare for. Yes you get some basic algorithm questions, but the smart companies will put a twist on them to give you a slightly different question and make you think on the fly. You also get a puzzle which can be tough. And you get some random questions about stuff you thought you had long since forgotten.
For example, in my last interview one guy asked me to complete the set notation for the cross product of 2 sets. e.g A X B = { <x,y> | …} and asked me to fill in the missing part. Somehow I remembered from college the exists notation (kind of a curved capital e) and correctly filled in x exists in a and y exists in B. Then the next guy asked me what causes an equinox to occur and when does it occur in the earth’s orbit around the sun. And of course there were 2 programming questions thrown in there. And this was just the first round of interviews with the company.
I think that demonstrates how impossible it is to prepare. You just have to go in, trust yourself, and hope for the best.
Author comment by Kireet | February 4, 2007 at 10:07 pm
oh yeah, no i somehow restrained myself and waited to take the water home before photographing it. I don’t think the professor was famous enough to ask for an autograph, though he did know my algorithms teacher from CMU (avrim blum). luckily he was an amazing teacher so i remembered his name. actually he kind of has an interesting back story:
http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20011021blum1021p3.asp
I think Kireet Khurana will mount an insurgent campaign after seeing this post.