2012 End of World? Its 2011, software companies are more worried about.

March, 2011 is going to be the last month, software export units, like us are going to raise tax-exempted invoices! The end of STPI scheme further denotes a raise of approx 15-35% in income tax.

While some of us were hoping to move to SEZ, latest news says:

"According to the revised DTC draft, which will replace the Income Tax Act of 1961 after approval by Parliament, tax exemption will be provided only for existing SEZ units and not new units. "

So, it is End of STPI scheme, no SEZ to look for shelter.

Nasscom has requested government to retain SEZ for new units, and there are still chances "the government could extend STPI tax holiday via a notification before the expiration." But, the tension on most software exporters (and SEZ builders like Unitech, DLF, or Mahindra) are lightening up.

We just request to announce a clear decision rather than keeping a question mark on the future.

Share your 3G USB Card Internet with your iPad/iPhone

We have shifted our home recently, and waiting for "BSNL" broadband to start here, till then I am stuck with the 3G USB card used to access the internet. Even though it gives a good surfing speed (around 125kBps), where do you stuck a USB card in your iPad? :-(

Necessity is the mother of invention, (in this case 'trick').

To share your PC's connection with your iPad (iPhone, or any other WiFi smartphone), here are the steps:-

1. You will need a Wi-Fi access point.

2. If your PC/Laptop don't have a Wi-Fi adapter, you will need one, there are USB Wi-Fi adapters available now.

3. Install the above two and give static IPs to your PC. (For example, 192.168.1.10 to your PC).

4. Install a Proxy server, like: CCProxy or FreeProxy. And setup and start it.


5. Next is time to connect to this network and proxy on your iPad / iPhone. Go to Settings -> WiFi Network -> Click on Detail Disclosure button -> And set static IPs, and Proxy details as in example below. (IP of Proxy server would be IP of your PC's WiFi adapter).


6. That is it, now you can dial your PCs network, and browse on your iPad, or watch YouTube videos, or download apps from AppStore, all from your USB Data Card!

Be a popular manager... NOT!

Sometime managers or leaders forgets that the post they are given is not a contest. If it is, they have already won it. So don't run for it. Stop playing nice, and do your duty.

When you are made a manager, you are given responsibilities, whether to manage a project to its completion or to manage human resources. However, many times with newbie managers, its seen that they start working on the wrong direction. Trying to be the nice guy, at the price of lost of time, energy or money. In this direction, the person diverts from the initial goal, growth of the company.

As a manager several times you got to make decisions that are going to cause anxiety among your pupil, but remember you are made the leader because you have seen more, done more. If you think you have taken the right decision, in honesty to your job, go with your gut. The crown is already on your head, and there won't be a SMS voting, so stop trying to get popular.

Employee Performance Review - One on One Meeting

Performance review is a critical part of human resource management. Business is about people, whether customers or employees, and a close review of it will help sort out several important problems.

The system we have here at RSPL is, every third month employees are subject to a personal review of their performance, and counseled about in which direction to move their career in the company.

First individual employee's Team leader fills and submit an "Employee Evaluation Form", then the employee himself fills the "Self evaluation form", the Employee also fills two more feedback forms, one a general company feedback form, and second a supervisor review form.

Henceforward, a schedule is announced for the employees, which might end for 15-20working days taking 1-2 daily. The meeting goes for 30-60mins depending on employee's job profile.

The actual review is very close to a personal interview but its made little informal, we want an environment where an employee can speak confidently. Instead of the first question being "Tell me something about yourself?" it starts from "How are things with you?" and then diving from Gantt charts, Schedules, Project management guidelines, Coding Standards, Debugging, UMLs, to Attendance, Work related Issues, Career goals, Office politics.

Finally, during the meeting guidelines are given about how to do better, as well as company's expectation from that individual employee. On the other hand, it also helps us better understand an individual contribution to company which sometimes are blurred by the hierarchical layers.

E-mail me (zeeshan @ retinax . com ) if you want any of those feedback forms.

Or if you want to be part of RSPL, drop an email to jobs @ retinasoftwarein.com

Why we have bonus?

About 3 years back, I blogged how we did bonus calculation with performance rather making it fixed to one's salary. However, the way bonus management is done now is different. We have introduced a more transparent "Variable Pay" in employees CTC. There is still performance bonus and awards distributed annually.

The salary structure consist of Basic, HRA, Conveyance, Medical, PF and Other allowances. And hence forward around 10% of the annual salary is added as the Variable pay, which would be paid yearly (on the Annual function) or twice an year if the sum is large.

In a recent meeting where I discussed company's current news and plans, with the employees, the most that got attention was the plan to re-define the salary structure as stated above. The division has been introduced and the reaction so far is mix, so I should suggest what is wrong.

Any employee in a company should not expect a healthy bonus or revision, if s/he is doing the exact same kind of work in the exact same kind of time. That is, are you only performing what is allocated to you or are you outperforming? Or worst under-performing?

We have a chart that describes the expected work-profile, but then again, this is "expected" for the cost already spent.

To achieve a significant growth, do beyond expectations, improve your skills, decrease the time of delivery, and as Toby Lucich said in the comment:

"Differentiate Yourself through Performance. Start looking for that something extra, a unique way to visibly shine. I'm not saying you should sign up for every random task, but keep an eye out for work that is important and bonus-worthy.

When you come to the end of the next quarter, recap your deliverables with your manager. Let them know that you love to make things happen, and are willing to do more."

5 Tips Before you click "Apply Now"

Here are few tips to mind before you click on the "Send" button to apply to us (or anywhere else for the matter).

1. Are you sending to the right person?

Every company out there will have a different email address for job applicants, jobs@, career@; so its there for some reason. May be it goes to the HR, or an auto-filter software... sending the CV to ceo@, support@ will not get it any special attention.


2. Subject

Subject is your first chance to get attention, take time to type a meaningful subject. It must include position (or job reference code), experience, key skills.

Like: [CPP] C++/QT: 2.5+ yrs exp.

3. CV File Format

The CV should be attached in preferably PDF, or else DOC. One that requires a specific software or converter will never get opened.

4. Covering Letter

If you applying through email, the body of the email should be your cover letter, why attachment? Do you want to convey you are using the same cover letter for every company you are applying for?

5. Personal Attention

Take time to make the job application personalized for the company. Drop a line about why you want to work with us.? What seems interesting in our company, products? CCing the same email to a dozen companies' jobs email is ridiculous. Re-read your email, and spell check it.


Good luck. On a side note, we have opening for C++ programmers, if you have coded in any domain of C++ (VC++, Bada, QT, Symbian, Carbon, Borland-C++, Dev-C++, GCC/G++) other than Turbo-C++, apply to us at "jobs @ retinax.com".

SniperSpy Upgrade

We ran out of 600GB of space we had at our current server, and the database was hosting text about 5GB. The proud upgrade of server we did in May, 2009 was no longer enough.

The trouble was, we didn't want to torture our customers, among thousands, by asking them to upgrade their builds with new version. We wanted everything to work behind the scene, and yet utilize the new server, 2TB of drive space, and new database.

We did it!

Our server runs on Linux and web scripts are running in PHP. PHP comes with some powerful network programming capabilities, here are two that helped.

1. PHP FTP Functions

One can create a fully functional secure FTP client in PHP. This helps in making the scripts transfer logs to new server, while the requests come to old server.

2. PHP Socket/HTTP Functions

PHP supports writing socket programs, but what helped in our case was the HTTP functions. This helps in sending request to another web server, and taking their response to the scripts only. We can do both GET/POST requests thru it.

This helps in writing several web programs that communicates between old and new server. Like isNewFilesPresent.php returns if new files is ready for fetching, and display it on the welcome page.

Besides that, MySQL can be given remote access permission, hence a web program can make use of database hosted on another server.

So, everything happily worked out.

Get more information about SniperSpy Remote Spy Software here.