Introduction to Greenplum

Greenplum Database is able to handle the storage and processing of large amounts of data by distributing the load across several servers or hosts. A logical database in Greenplum is actually an array of individual PostgreSQL databases, all working together to present a single database image. The master is the entry point to the Greenplum Database system. It is the database instance where clients connect and submit SQL statements. The master coordinates the work across the other database instances in the system, the segments, which handle data processing and storage. The segments communicate with each other and with the master over the interconnect, which is the networking layer of Greenplum Database.

Greenplum Database is a software-only solution, meaning that it runs on a variety of commodity server platforms from Greenplum-certified hardware vendors. The hardware and database software are not coupled as with some other data warehouse appliance vendors. However, as with any database, Greenplum’s performance is dependent on the hardware on which it is installed. And because the database is distributed across multiple machines in a Greenplum Database system, the selection and configuration of hardware is even more important to achieving the best performance possible.

Life is full of if's and but's.

People tell me it philosophy, some say its Art and other prove it to be science!

Many of us look back to our past and say ‘Oh what If I had done this ! what if I had done that! But the circumstances around dint make it happen. Even if we think we can’t get a  second chance in life so we have to think wisely about our future. Well this reminds me that life is full of ifs and but’s.

Well my friends life is full of if’s and but’s , may it be a simple thing as getting up early morning for a quick walk or going gym or physical exercise to do that we have 100’s of if’s and but’s isn’t it? Like If I haven’t slept last night I would have make it, If I am not loaded with work I would have made time to gym or oops its summer etc. and we keep pushing/delaying things for tomorrow. Well a wise man rightly stated if the things/tasks are not done today! It will never be done tomorrow. We are never happy with current life as grass is always greener on the other side one always envy what others people has done for example aspire to have other job role/ other kind of life we have if I could do MBA I would have been XXX and but I dint do because of XXX reason so its that always when we have goals are other’s victory is and we know we also can achieve it, everyone has the same 24 hours in a day but  we somehow have strings attached to all the if’s and but’s for not doing the things.

“If’s and but’s is a term used to describe the reason/excuses for not doing something.”

By now you would have guessed that I’m going to talk about the definition of this idiom. Let me dig deeper and wish to share my thoughts.

A lot of people have an attitude that involves a lot of “ifs” and “but’s”. This kind of attitude often becomes a huge hurdle in the path that leads to success. People who welcome everything with either an if’s or a but’s are essentially the people who are quite unlikely to succeed in life. Why is that so?

When a person puts the clause stating if’s or a but’s , they restrict themselves from doing things that should otherwise be done and which they are usually capable of doing. Thus, people should make a sub-conscious effort of turning every “if” and “but” into something more positive.

Let me take the word “if” first. The moment we start the sentence with this word, we are sending out vibes of doubt. We are putting condition on potential good actions by doubting that would even happen.

Some examples are:

1.       If I get more money, I will do more charity.

2.       If I have to lose some weight, I can fit in that dress and be happy.

3.       If I can afford it, I would love to have that.

4.       If I had more education, I would have a better job and earn more  money.

5.       If I have more time, I would love to do….

I can keep going on and on. I think you get the point. In all the above mentioned cases, happiness and peace of mind is conditional. We have trained our mind and body to accept such virtual happiness scenarios. We are okay to retrofit the outcomes in our life back to our thinking. To turn the statements into more positive one, I have a very simple rule. Change all If’s in your life to when’s so the above sentence will look like:

1.       When I get more money, I will do more charity.

2.       When I have lose some weight, I can fit in that dress and be happy.

3.       When I can afford it, I would love to do that.

4.       When I will get more educated, I would have a better job and earn more money.

Now let me discuss on the word “but”:

Some examples are:

1.       But I can’t….

2.       But why should I….

3.       But I don’t have time to do this…

To turn the statements into more positive one, I have again a simple rule. Change all the But’s in your life to Then Again so the above statement will look like:

1.       But I can’t, then again I can try.

2.       But why should I, then again why wouldn’t I try.

3.       But I don’t have time to do this, then again I will find out some time.

Les Brown says: “the only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the but’s or if’s you use today.

Well these if’s and but’s never end. I believe all of us can predict, foresee our future to an extent. Start shedding down the if’s and but’s and substitute with all the possibilities. Thus to anyone who wish to achieve something, the question of if’s and but’s should  never arise. The only question that will make the difference is” “Why shouldn’t I”…

If only.. If only.. If only…

But.. But… But…

Life is full of if’s and but’s

It’s all in our hand how we can make a living out of it J J

Judge Your Financial Position

Judge Your Financial Position for Retirement Purpose

If we want to live a Luxury Life after our Retirement then we need to do a good planning for our retirement. For the same we are required to calculate our current financial position or Net Worth and also the expected Net Worth.

Now the question arise in our mind that how will we come to know about our Current Net Worth and Expected Net Worth. Let’s learn about that:

Follow these steps:

(A)  For Calculating the Net Worth:

Step 1.  Calculate your Liquid Assets (Can be converted into cash within short period) e.g. Cash, Bonds, Stocks, Coins etc.

Step 2.  Calculate your Fixed Assets (Can’t be converted into cash within short period) e.g. land, buildings, equipment, machinery, vehicles etc.

Step 3.  Calculate Total Assets

Total Assets =

Liquid Assets + Fixed Assets

Step 4.  Calculate your Short term & Medium term liabilities (Which are expected to be satisfied within one year) e.g. Accounts payable, Wages, Outstanding Bills, Rent etc.

Step 5.  Calculate your Long term liabilities (Which are expected to be satisfied after one year) e.g. Debentures, Mortgage Loan, Education Loan etc.

Step 6.  Calculate Total liabilities

Total liabilities =

Short term & Medium term liabilities + Long term liabilities

Step 7.  Now Calculate Current Net Worth

Net Worth = 

Total Assets- Total liabilities

(B)  For Calculating the Expected Net Worth:

As per some experts Expected Net Worth should be equal roughly your Age, multiplied by your Annual Pretax Income, Divided by 10. This formula is an estimate where you should be today.

Expected Net Worth =

(Age * Annual Pretax Income)/10

(C)  Final Step:

Now you have got your Net Worth and Expected Net Worth also. Do compare your Expected Net Worth with your Net Worth.

If Current Net worth (A) > Expected Net worth (B) = you are going well or your financial position is strong as retirement point of view.

If Current Net worth (A) < Expected Net worth (B) > = you are behind somewhere in your financial planning or your financial position is weak as retirement point of view. 

Example:

For example, if Mr. Farhu Khan is forty-one years old, makes $143,000 a year, and has investments that return another $12,000, he would multiply $155,000 by forty-one. That equals $6,355,000. Dividing by ten, his expected net worth is $635,500.

On the same side Mr. Farhu Khan has $100,000 as Current Assets, $500,000 as Fixed Assets and $20,000 as short term Liabilities $120,000 as long term Liabilities, he would add the Current Assets & Fixed Assets that’s equal to $600,000 and now would add the short term Liabilities & long term Liabilities that’s equal to $140,000.

Now he would subtract the total liabilities ($140,000) from total assets ($600,000) that’s equal to $460,000 which is his Current Net Worth.

Mr. Farhu Khan’s Current Net Worth is $460,000 and Expected net worth is $635,500 which means he is very behind ($635,500-$460,000=$175,500) in his financial planning.

Now after getting this result he can plan accordingly.

We all can also apply this for our financial Planning.............

Cost of living at the Midpoint of Retirement

What level of income do you think will need for your retirement years?

Expert used to advice that you would need 60 percent of your preretirement income to live comfortably during retirement. But that figure has changed and comes to 70 to 90 percent due to inflation rate.

Now the question is how to calculate the cost of living for your retirement?

You can use the "Retirement Income Needs Calculator" to make an estimate how much of your annual income you will need during your retirement years.

Under "Retirement Income Needs Calculator" we require:

1. Current Annual Income after Taxes

2. Projected Percentage of Current Annual Income Needed After Retirement

3. Postretirement Living Expenses (Expected Inflation Factor)

Formula =

(Current Annual Income after Taxes) × (Projected Percentage of Current Annual Income Needed After Retirement) × (Postretirement Living Expenses/ Expected Inflation Factor)

For all this you have to follow below mentioned steps:

Step 1: Enter your Current Annual Income after Taxes..... (A)

Step 2: Enter Projected Percentage of Current Annual Income Needed after Retirement (Can take any

              percentage from 70-90)..... (B)

Step 3: Enter the estimated the number of years from now until the midpoint of your retirement years.

              To calculate this figure we have to take the help of an example:

·         Suppose you are 50 years now and expect to retire at 65 and you think that you will live more 20 years after your retirement then first you have to take the difference between Retirement Age and Current Age Which is 65 Years-50 Years = 15 Years (a)

             After this you have to take the average of the difference between your maximum living age

            (Which you think 85 or 20 more years after retirement) and your retirement age which will be:                

           

            (85 Years-65 Years= 20 Years)/2 = 10 Years (b)

            Now final result would be (a) + (b) = 15 Years + 10 Years = 25 Years….. (C)

            These 25 Years signifies that today you are 50 years old and after 25 years means 75 years would

            be your midpoint of your retirement age and your maximum living age.

   Step 4: Enter the Expected Inflation factor for postretirement living expenses

                To calculate this figure you have to take the projected inflation rate at the time of midpoint of    

                your retirement.

                Suppose at the midpoint of your retirement inflation rate would be 4% and we have already

                calculated your midpoint of your retirement age and your maximum living age in Step 3 which

                is 25 Years.

               Expected Inflation factor /Retirement Living Expense Inflation Factor=

               (1+4/100) or (1+0.04)²⁵   = 2.67….. (D)

Step 5: Calculate your Annual Cost of living at the midpoint of your retirement which would be: 

              (Current Annual Income after Taxes) × (Projected Percentage of Current Annual Income Needed

              After Retirement) × (Expected Inflation factor /Retirement Living Expense Inflation Factor)

              (A) × (B) × (D) = ….. (E)

Example for Full Calculation:

Mr. Vansukh’s Pretax Income is $100,000 Annual and his tax rate is 40%. He expects to need 80% of that amount at the time of retirement.  He is 40 years old and hopes to retire at 60 years and to live to be 80 years. He also expects inflation to average 5% annually over the relevant period.

Now we will calculate Mr. Vansukh’s annual cost of living at the midpoint of his retirement years:

Step 1:  Current Annual Income after Taxes = ($100,000 before taxes – 40% Tax) = $60,000

Step 2: Projected Percentage of Current Annual Income Needed after Retirement = 80% = 0.80

Step 3: Enter the estimated the number of years from now until the midpoint of your retirement years

             Difference between Retirement Age and Current Age = 60 years-40 years = 20 years (a)

             Average of Difference between maximum living age and retirement age=

             80 years-60 years = 20 years/2 = 10 years (b)

             Total years = (a) + (b) = 20 years + 10 years = 30 years

             These 30 years means Mr. Vansukh is 40 years old now and after 30 years means 70 years

             would be the midpoint of his retirement.

Step 4:  Expected Inflation factor /Retirement Living Expense Inflation Factor =

              (1+0.05)³⁰   = 4.32

Step 5/Final Step: Calculate Annual Cost of living at the midpoint of retirement:

             (Current Annual Income after Taxes) × (Projected Percentage of Current Annual Income Needed

             After Retirement) × (Postretirement Living Expenses/ Expected Inflation Factor)

            = $60,000 × 0.80 × 4.32

            = $2,07,360 would be the annual cost of living at midpoint of Mr. Vansukh’s retirement.

It will give you an estimate of the amount of the annual after tax income you will need to live comfortably during your retirement. Some of that money will come from social security, employer provided pension if you are eligible, but you should get a goal amount so you can decide how you are going to acquire that level of savings.

Thanks………………….

Expectation from an Ideal Tester !

Hmm…..It can be a daunting task to jot down the expectations from an Ideal Tester. If we dream about it without limiting ourselves to any specific boundaries an Ideal Tester can be expected to be

• Having mastery over architecture and design of the system so that he/she can do excellent impact analysis of changes in the components or bug fixes and optimize the test scope and effort
• Very proficient in the system level requirements so that they can define the optimal coverage of requirements in testing and analysis and fill the gaps in requirements itself
• Having expert knowledge of customer and end user expectations so that they can be the representative internal to the product company to explore all creative ways in which the end user would have used the system.
• Very creative in exploring the system under test in ways that typical developers would not have imagined, so that all corner cases can be exercised and maximum number of bugs can be caught
• “Un-assuming” about the known design constraints of the system (testers should not accept the known design constraints of the system and should continue to challenge the system to enhance the capabilities)
• Very good problem solving skills to creatively reproduce the rarest of the bugs
• Extremely methodical, having excellent communication skills and documentation skills
• Ability to withstand pressure and say NO; this will come handy in several situations like development slippages eating into testing time or when project managers or development teams try to negotiate down the severity of the defects !

Many a times people think that testing is a low end job that “any Tom, Dick and Harry can do”. This is not true. Though some amount of testing can be done by “anyone”, just about anyone CAN NOT have mastery at the aspects that I have mentioned above. Experts from other functions will, in almost all probabilities do a very poor job if entrusted with a testing job. Hence in my view, testers should find ways to stand apart from the crowd by achieving mastery in the areas mentioned above and recognition and laurels will follow.

Changing roles of testing professionals in an ‘Organization’

Testers are no longer seen as a 'monkey tester' or 'party pooper' but a stakeholder in successful delivery of application in production environment

1. Testers act as customer and stakeholder representatives.

2. Testers need to demonstrate business understanding, understand customer priorities and market realities

3. Testers are going beyond just protecting the interests of the customer/stakeholders but supporting the development team to build better software.

4. Testers are helping development team stay on track (risk mitigation, building the right things in the right manner, detecting fragility/brittle areas of the application early in the development cycle etc).

5. Testers are increasingly turning aggressive relationship to a collaborative relationship between testing and development teams.

The 21st century organization needs to bring testing upfront in delivery life-cycle to provide rapid feedback, build safety net of automated tests to allow rapid changes in application and involve users early to build the right value tests. To do these they need to invest in multi-skilled testing professionals trained in cutting edge test methodologies. Testers alone can’t bring efficiency in testing. For that there needs to be an increase in collaboration between testers and business experts, testers and developers and testers and end users. Organizations which encourage use of agile methods, and tools and techniques which allow collaboration to happen are more likely to deal with changes efficiently.

“Function” Vs “Functionality”

Most of us are aware of what Function and Functionality is, but do not know the exact difference between these two words concerning computer software.  People usually take it interchangeably, but there is a large difference between both the words.

FUNCTION

If we talk about a function, it refers to the task an item is meant to perform, or its purpose. It can be summarized as

“A function is interpreted as a specific process, action or task that a system is able to perform”

Usually function needs data or information as an input. Based on this input, function transform or create new information.

Each function contains function logic considering business process rules. Functional logic can be understood as business logic that is applied in form of computer program.

FUNCTIONALITY

Functionalities have to do with functions. It tells how something (task) is done. Functionality can be understand as

“The capability or behavior of a program, application, or system to provide functions which meet stated and implied needs when the software is used under specified conditions”

It is the ability to perform a task or function; that something is able or equipped to perform. Functionality refers to how efficiently a feature or item performs a task for which it was intended. Poor design of an item would decrease its functionality at performing its function.

Literally, in every software or application, the function will be standard but the functionality can vary. Functions like “Edit” or “Update” will be referred by the same name in almost all the available software applications, but functionality (the way how data are updated) will be different.

Function and Functionality are entirely different, so purpose of these two terms should be taken very attentively and should not be misunderstand as identical.