Happy New Year!!

May our blog grow bigger and better the coming year!

Happy New Year to one and all!!

Long Drives

Since the time I got my hands on the driver's license one thing that has always thrilled me is long drives. I'm always excited the night before such drives. Tomorrow we're about to go on such a drive to Ekm. Driving with the music on and windows down.. The cool air breezing around in the early morning, the sweating towards the noon when windows go back up and AC's turned on..

Tomorrow's likely to have more of the second though, cuz I'm told we're going to start at 8:30 am. Anyway it's going to be fun cuz the driver's seat is always the best view on road. The road leads forward. Don't be harsh on the accelerator lest you may lose control. Don't pull back the feet either, cuz there are places to go, people to see and not much time to waste.

Merry Christmas to everyone! and a Happy New Year..
This might be my last blog in a really eventful year..

The Way Back Home

My friend and I got down at the bus stop and we part ways.. My mind was still not at ease after the main project session. I decided to call it a day and let Vienna Teng sing softly at my ears. As if by providence thence came the bus that led back home but via a long road I hadn't taken oft.

Time goes fast if you hurry. This was the verse that I played around for a while in the bus. The drizzle was starting to find in through the windows. I didn't care.. I fact I wished it would continue, like the days we spend in college. Time has it's own speed. It's our mind that goes fast or slow and it's seldom that I get moment like these when I'm able to pause everything for a moment and slow down time such a pace. A pace from which I could both admire the past, accept the present and dont give a **** about the future :-)

I don't want to remember my college days as a blur. Neither do I want to be tied down by the memories. So I try not to slip up on such chances that come by. As I was floating along in such memories something outside suddenly struck me. The walls outside seemed more than familiar. The fact that I hadn't thought that this road led afront ma school filled me with some kind of shame. I hadn't been to school for some months, even though I'm just a stone throw away. Had I been preoccupied with so much thoughts from college that i forgot my dear school? na.. After seeing school it was memories from school that took over. I'm now walking back home.. The drizzle's still there as if to say everything takes it's time; only if you don't hurry.

MY LOVE STORY

I was standing at the bar,

she was passing in her car,

from where did she appear,

boy was she some avatar,

a lovely frock she did wear....

the girl about whom im mad,

for her i dont mind being bad,

the only thing i fear is her dad,

her thoughts make me so glad,

just a fight with her has me sad,

she s the girl i wish i had...

next day i saw her at the bazaar,

she looked at me if i was some stranger,

she dint like me twas clear,

i jus wanted te be her dear,

and be her brave and mighty lear....

the girl about whom im mad,

for her i dont mind being bad,

the only thing i fear is her dad,

her thoughts make me so glad,

just a fight with her has me sad,

she s the girl i wish i had...

she bit me on my ear,

i lost hold of the brakes and gear,

a lorry hit us in the rear,

her eyes were full of fear,

and we died lyin near...

the girl about whom im mad,

for her i dont mind being bad,

the only thing i fear is her dad,

her thoughts make me so glad,

just a fight with her has me sad,

she s the girl i wish i had...

COME TO ME

Wish it were a day with the wink of my eye...
but each day takes its time,smirks at me and passes by.....
its in my tears that i hide my love for you.....
am a leaf and my tears like dew....
oh it feels like u been gone for ages.....
i could go on and fill pages....
im in a trance dat i cant explain....
i feel like im shelley or twain...
oh you are ma cherie.....
only thing i ask of you is, to come to me.....

MY FIRST KISS

Was this the feelin for which i lived,

i now know wat it feels like to be kissed,

oh i dint know till day wat i had missed,

sweet it will taste i had been told,

a feelin u will tell is precious than gold,

i feel like not lettin u go from my hold,

wish we could stay on like this as if we were of one mould..

il go on for pages and folds....

im sure this love is ages old...

Confession 2 (Page 3)

Previously..
Confession 2 (Page 1)
Confession 2 (Page 2)

She sat down on the bed beside me. Her hair slowly floated around in the cool wind of the morning. The warmth of the sun was creeping in throught the windows.

"What's you plan?", she enquired smiling.
"You", I replied.
She laid back on the bed and closed her eyes. They looked calm. The nervousness I saw in it yesterday has completely left. I heard a music ringing in my ears. It was coming from somewhere near. She jumped out of the bed.
"That's my phone.", she replied to my puzzled look.

She went to the next room and got the phone out her handbag. I felt too lazy to get out of bed. Anyway she was coming back to where she sat. I saw deep lines of worry burrowing on her face. Something wasn't right. She tried to put up a brave face as she cut the call.

"There's a problem", she started.
"Eh?"
"The call was from Credence Hospital. My hus is admitted there. He's had a drinking problem. He went there for checkup due to stomach ache yesterday. It seems he has liver cancer."

I broke the silence that ensued "You should be going.", I said
"This is your problem, it has always been.." her words trailed away as I cut in angrily.
"Am I the one with the problem? You are the one who's had a broken marriage. You're the one who lost her son. You are the one who's run away and slept with a-" I stopped suddenly realising I'd gone too far. The silence that followed was the longest in my life.

"I'm going", she said softly. I understood.

As she walked into the adjacent room to redress I looked upon the pen that lay on the table beside my bed. I started doing what I should have done ten years ago. Five minutes later she returned. Her eyes told she'd been crying. I folded the letter I had written and held it out to her. She put it in her carrybag and walked out..

An Engineer's Heart !

Could not resist the temptation to put this online:

I guess you all know who is the man with this heart. :D

Comment on Sudeep's article

i started this as a comment, and then switched on for a new post...



the whole article needs polishing...

and i agree with john on that line... its cool!


and what if i could write one detailed description of a day at CET for me?

classes,
dept library,
classes,
tech library
,classes,
Copy Park,
classes,
dept library reference section,
classes,
half an hour at home prioritizing the day's stuff to be completed,
then back to college,
reading ebooks and papers at CCF upto 8:30pm,
come back home lazily,
and flip through pages of texts for deciding pages to be at Copy Park the next day and sleep...
the cycle continues...

i wonder how it'll be like once i start working?????

and as i was mentioning to a few, i have loosened up a lot in these 3.5yrs.. and i'd really like to put in a lot of effort to be lazy for the next few months atleast... with God's grace i've been able to do anything i set myself on through dedicated work,... i wonder how much work i have to put in to be lazy, to not attend classes, to stop visiting the library, to start watching a lot-lot of movies, ah.. the list is endless....

desp! how can i even think of all that!

lemme imagine myself at my future workplace....

eatworkeatworkeatworkeatsleepeatworkeatworkeatworkeatsleepeatworkeatworkeatworkeatsleepeatworkeatworkeatworkeatsleepeatworkeatworkeatworkeatsleepeatworkeatworkeatworkeatsleepeatworkeatworkeatworkeatsleep

ah... the signs are showing.... instead of trying to complete a lengthy BMI assignment, i'm visiting AEIOhYou and ...................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

This is what college life meant to us…

Guys.. me nd ln wrote this 2gthr 4 coll. mag. pls go thru it nd tell if its worth being published in coll mag. corrections are welcome.



Dreams show us the path ahead, dreams serve as an inspiration to move along. All of us had a dream, when we entered into this campus, three and a half years before. We were totally unaware of what was going on here. Now, some still pursue their dreams, some got diverted in between, some started to have more dreams, and some are in total chaos.
To which ever group you belong, the time that you spent in this campus is going to be the best and the most unforgettable in your life. This is where we realized that friends are for a lifetime and feelings are just for a moment.
***
Here we are, two fellow cetians, trying to describe a day of a typical cetian who is lazy, irresponsible, and careless.
***
On each and every morning, eyelids seem to be the heaviest thing on earth for me. Even heavier than what Karnam Malleshwari managed to lift to give us that Olympic medal. But I am a born fighter, that’s why I was able to reach here in CET. So I fight with it every day, and somehow open my eyes before 9 because that’s the time at which classes are supposed to start in our college (At least for those who can wake themselves up that early.)
***
I go past the main gate, there stands the main block. I have always loved it’s look. I get into the class, at 9.30 or so. The teacher allowes me to get in, which does not happen that often. I get thrown out every now and then, but I don’t really mind. After all, getting into classes is just a matter of getting attendance for cetians. Whatever is taught in the classes, we never worry about it. Have you ever heard the definition of a college professor? They are the ones who talk when all others are sleeping. That’s one thing in which most of the cetians firmly believe in, so we never try to forfeit it. I keep observing the class while the teacher is trying to explain something. A few are drawing pictures in their notebooks. May be of some of the girls sitting in the first bench, or of the teacher herself. Some are discussing some matters of immense importance, most probably a movie that released recently, yesterday’s English Premier League match or some other equally serious matter. One of my friends was sleeping. He got up when he was about to fall from the bench and looked around as if a new born baby was watching the world, totally confused. Various games like Bingo, Bull and cow etc. were going on in several benches.
In spite of all these, there are a few who take keen interest in what is being taught. They are all listening to the teacher, waiting for each and every word to fall from her mouth. They can also be classified into two, the ones with good technical knowledge, and the ones without it (Don’t underestimate them, some of them even write books on certain subjects even though they don’t know a thing.) But that doesn’t really matter as both groups score well in the exams.
During lunch time, cetians always love to spice things up a bit at Lords. Lords is the best restaurant near to the college, where things are served so quickly that we will even think of leaving a visiting card and getting back later. Sharja corner and Chechikkada are usually the options when the budget is low.
I don’t usually sit in the class in the afternoon, since I want to give my brain a break. I just walk around in the campus. There aren’t too many places in our campus to hang out except for the flirt-zone (Panchara kaadu as it is popularly called and there is no point in going there alone) and a small canteen. Our Library is an excellent one, (That’s what some tell. Haven’t had much of an experience) but that would be the last place to hang out. Even the guys who love to spend their free time in the library had told me that they hadn’t seen more than five (I know that five is a huge number) people in the reference section. Of course there is a large amount of knowledge there, the freshers bring a little in, seniors don't take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates.
***
You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink till sunrise. The work never ends, but college does...
Live every day to the fullest and take risks. As long as you are happy, nothing more is important. Tomorrow isn't promised, so make sure you make the best out of today.
Thanks to my parents that they put me in the best college! The three and a half years I spent in the college was ecstatic. Lots of memories are still hitting me like huge waves, but it is not possible to put everything in writing!! My college and College life Rocks!
We even have Mr. George W. Bush to back ourselves up. "To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the other students, I say you too may one day be president of the United States."
***

Now, one last question to you all.. “If you had a time machine and you were tossed back to the beginning of your college life, what one thing would you like to do which you haven’t done now? ”

The rain that brought some thoughts

Days seem so similar. Nothing much happens on a particular day. The things that I read and things that I scribble somewhere seem to be the only difference between today and yesterday. I do have a clear idea of what I want to do in my life (Of course, it has been changing from time to time). But I don’t feel like I am moving towards what I intend to achieve. “If you want to do something in your life, now is the only time to do it.” I remember reading so in a book written by Robin Sharma(Don’t exactly remember which one. The monk who sold his Ferrari, may be). That really makes sense, doesn’t it? Right now, I can’t decipher what my life is heading towards.

All these were the thoughts in my mind when I was lying on the bed last night, with total darkness around. It was 1.30 or so. My roommate was lying next to me, sleeping peacefully. Hostel was not fully asleep. There will always be someone awake at MH. I could hear a song being played somewhere.

Right then, I heard the sound of water pouring down and hitting the earth. It was raining. I got up and walked towards the window. Small water droplets were coming in. I stood there for a while, enjoying the rain, listening to the music embedded in it.

Nature beckons from outside, and I couldn’t resist it. I took my clothes off, wore a towel and ran out. In CET MH, grills are always open. So anyone could go out any time. I ran to the ground in front of the hostel and stood at the centre.

I looked back at the hostel, with the cool water refreshing both my mind and body. It was an obscure view of the notorious MH. CET men’s hostel, where I arrived with a lot of hope about my future, where I had to face the worst situations of my life (as far as studies were concerned.), where I learned to stand up and fight, where my dreams got mutilated and then reverted, where I earned a lot of close friends, where I tried to walk on eggshells when small fights occurred between my friends, where I met some audacious bunch of people doing crazy things consistently and above all, where I learned a lot about life, if not about engineering. These were the things that I achieved in these four years, I could achieve only this much.

I will have to bid adieu to this place, within a few months, being jobless. But in that poignant moment, I will never regret my decision to be a part of this hostel, not one bit (huh… Joker has influenced me pretty much). Besides all the difficulties that I had to face, I will cherish each and every moment that I spent here.

Rain had almost stopped. I walked back slowly.

Kung fu Panda

Best song from Kung-fu-Panda
http://rapidshare.com/files/163393779/Every_body_is_kung_fu_fighting.mp3

PS: This blog only provides some information about a file stored in Rapidshare. It is the personal choice of the readers to decide how to use it.Strictly for non-commercial purpose.

Electrifying

As the rainclouds gathered outside, Hirosh was engrossed in the circuit he was designing. It was for the robot he was making , just for fun.

His name had come up in the newspaper the previous week. The newspaper had called him an "electrifying personality," though 'electrifying' was the last word one would use to describe his personality. It was that, electricity passed through him sans the slightest harm. The newspaper had a photo of him holding a glowing bulb for which electricity came through his hand. His face was brighter than the bulb, though.

Then, you may wonder why he was working on an electronic circuit. Ask him and he would say,"i have conquered large currents, now to the smaller ones." And you would think, what a stupid answer!

As he was testing the H-bridge ICs for the circuit, his hands accidentally touched the transformer of the power supply. He felt a funny tickle as the mains current passed through his body.

He paused for a moment to savor that feeling. A smile appeared slowly, but froze half way, as he saw a blinding flash of lightning outside..

2 B A B

I C A B,

A B from C

A C of CB

CB can C

B Z "B A B"

I Z "O B U C,

me 2 A B"

when U C A B

U B A B or

B will P in I

B C A Q

B Z"R U A C of B? "

Q Z"S V R"

"I C U 2 R B"

2 B A CB

U go 2 C

when U C A C,

look 4 A CB

if  U C A CB

CB will C U 2

U will B A CB.

C U in C

A E I O U!!

For those lower beings thinking that I am crazy:

I C A B,                      I see a bee

A B from C                 A bee from sea

A C of CB                     A sea of sea-bee

CB can C                      Sea-bee can see

B Z "B A B"                Bee said "Be a bee"

I Z "O B U C,              I said "Oh bee you see,

me 2 A B"                   me too a bee"

when U C A B            when you see a bee

U B A B or                 you be a bee or

B will P in I             bee will pee in eye

B C A Q                     Bee see a queue

B Z"R U A C of B? " Bee said "Are you a sea of bee?" 

Q Z"S V R"              Queue said "Yes we are"

"I C U 2 R B"           "I see, you too are bee"

2 B A CB                   To be a sea-bee

U go 2 C                   You go to sea

when U C A C,          when you see a sea

look 4 A CB              look for sea-bee

if  U C A CB               if you see a sea-bee

CB will C U 2             sea-bee will see you too

U will B A CB.          You will be a sea-bee

C U in C                   See you in sea

A E I O U!!              Aye I owe you!!

Pardon me for posting this...

My Experiments with Linux

People find it hard to believe that Windows wasn't the first Operating system with complete graphical user interface. But I do, because I'd seen one before Windows existed. My vague memory says it had an X shaped mouse pointer.

Why bother typing in a terminal when the same can be done with a mouse click? This is the question encountered by the crowd when they are up against any linux distribution. Mark my word, the current distros can do more than 'the same' by the click of a mouse. The customisations possible in linux is limitless. You'll just have to search for the right software. There's the difference - you can either choose to be spoon fed or search for a better alternative.

The above paragraph may sound like me being an open source fan. I do not deny to be one, but still use XP and do agree that I find it easier to use than linux. Then why support open software? Because I believe linux is the way forward. It's past time that we ditch the policy of stringent software licensing except in the case of custom made commercial/business softwares. I feel PC users should have the freedom to utilise their computer in the best possible way.

My experiences in past few days had been kind of a revelation. I had installed Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) in dual-boot with XP. Few months ago, I reinstalled XP and grub (bootloader) was lost. I din't give much thought to recovering Ubuntu and had been using XP only since. Recently I started following the progress of next version of Ubuntu - 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex). I had to have it. Then I remembered that I still had not formatted the linux drives. Was there any way to recover it? I searched the net and voila - the fix was simple. Just three terminal commands later, the grub was back up and running. That's when I realised the power of terminal and wish there was something similar in Windows (Windows command prompt is nowhere close). I bet most of us would have had to reinstall the OS if it was Windows. I've done it more than once and lost all files in C:\.

All was going well right until I got the Xubuntu-8.10 CD in my hands. I tried upgrading directly, but i guess direct upgrading from Ubuntu 8.04 to Xubuntu 8.10 is not supported. I cudn't give up and started installing the OS part by part from CD (another thing I dont think Windows installer can do). Slowly my desktop changed from Gnome (Ubuntu's Desktop Environment) to the lightweight XfCe (Xubuntu's Desktop Environment). To the untrained eye this might look like changing Operating Systems but actually it's just something on the outside, the kernel remains Linux. But finally I went one step too much. I'm not sure what happened and I ended up fixing what wasn't broken - with GUI not loading. Tried out a few solutions I got from net, but nothing worked. So..

I did a clean installation of Xubuntu this time around. You expect a happy ending? Sorry my system's still broken.:-) But I know the solution's out there somewhere and the knowledge that I can do it myself without being a pirate gives me the inspiration to try again. The real joy in using linux comes from the fact that you actually get a feeling of being closer to YOUR PC.

Update (13-11-08): I've managed to successfully break and make (using linux live CD) the system for the past 4 days. I've virtually become an expert in system recovery without data loss..

Suggested softwares for system recovery:
In Linux OS:
1. testdisk - very powerful, i was able to backup everything before fixing the boot sector, the mbr and checking the disk for errors.
2. ms-sys: this software can be used to fix problems with XP (and many other OS) boot sector (mbr) and even write a new one.
In Windows:
there is a repair option in install CD.
try fixmbr and chkdsk

Never lose hope and re-install the system if you have important data without giving a try at system recovery. There are numerous options out there..

Some moments that I can't forget

** I mean nothing serious.. absolutely nothing.. just enjoy the little jokes **

Sitting in the classes has become so much of a boring thing for me. I never expected that classes would be held on such a regular basis in s7. We used to have more free hours in s6 than this.. didn't we?

Today, we did the presentation regarding our project. KK had taught me something (he's my fellow project mate) and I ended up telling something(else...??) in front of Biji jacob sir. Me and Balu tried our best to deliver whatever we knew, but still, he complained about one-man show(when KK is around, that is unavoidable, isn't it??).

But I was very happy that I knew at least something about my main project. In the case of mini project, things were different. I knew almost nothing about it. (Of course, it was my fault.. to be very honest, I never made any sincere effort). Umesh,Bachi and Surji were my mates then. My contributions were limited to visiting Bach's house(Only to have lunch,tea etc. and to display my counter strike skills while others tried to make that thing work),buying components from thakarapparambu etc. But at last, we had to go to the exam hall with someone else's project since ours didn't work. Bachi somehow managed to get a similar project from one of his friends in some other college. Quite unfortunately, their external examiner happened to be ours also.(Now that's what bad luck is.. can u just imagine the probability of such a thing to happen? Seriously, it's too small ya..). He kept telling us that he had seen exactly the same project somewhere else. What could we do about that huh??

Even though all these happened, I never had any doubt regarding the intellect of my project mates, especially Bach. He even showed me some weird and unique symbols during last microprocessor lab that only one person in this world could do. All those appeared on the screen when Bach wrote a program by himself and we tried to execute it. Symbols, that I haven't seen even among Greek or Roman letters.. That was an unforgettable experience.. not only the symbols, but the face expression of Bach also when all those appeared.. Man.. I didn't have a cam with me to capture that golden moment...!!!

The Tachometer story

**Pals, here I am going to tell you a story,which actually happened in our electrical machines lab.It happened during our university exam.I am going to describe it in first person because it will make it more funny.I will not tell you the name of the real hero due to his persuasion(threats). **

(This doesn't deny the possibility of that brave soul being me.. ok??)

Well.. guys, as always it is, I rarely had any interest in attending classes during s6 also.Let it be theory classes, or labs, those ain't bothering me. But still, I had to get into machines lab several times for attendance. Since their department was notorious for giving lowest internal marks, friends persuaded me to get in. sometimes, I yielded, sometimes I didn't.

But of course, I never allowed anything to affect my reputation. I was deeply engaged in my own businesses when all those dirty machines worked and others took readings...

But, as usual, when the exam was coming near, I found myself at sea.(that has become so regular!!) Just one day before the exam, I started to study so hard. I didn't feel as if I've ever seen any of those machines.Dc series,shunt, and all that crap. I tried to make out how each machine looked like, how to make all those connections and all that.

Next day, I entered into the exam hall with full confidence.I got an experiment and somehow I managed to write down all the stuff.(I don't even remember which one.. Why should I? Human brain doesn't have unlimited storage like gmail inbox).

I went to fetch components. I wasn't very sure if all those were the right components since I was seeing them for the first time.(Or atleast, i felt so..) The component list consisted of one thing called tachometer.I had a clear idea of how it was used. My friend had explained everything with hand gestures since it was impossible to have a real instrument. Right then, a question came towards me.

"You want a digital tachometer or an analog one?"

Well... that was a situation which I had never thought of.I didn't even know that two types existed.I was so confused as if a child was asked to choose between his mom and dad.

Now lemme tell you guys, when such a crisis occurs in your life, try to be purely logical, listen to your brain..

And that was exactly what I did..

Analog and digital.. Both of them revolved around my head.. digital.. means what? only ones and zeros.. thats much better.. isn't it?

I thought of the two subjects that we studied in 4th semester.. Analog and digital.. I thought of the way in which I miserably failed in one of them and managed to secure passmark in the other.. wow!! That was the most logical thing that I had ever thought of..

I said in a firm voice "digital..."

Somhow, I managed to make all the connections. I turned the machine on. I had to measure the number of rotations of the machine. So, that was where tachometer came into play. I tried to memorise what my friends explained to me. Tachometer had to be inserted at one end of the rotating part. I looked at the end of the tachometer and the hole in the machine.

"Naa... this isn't gonna make it"

I was pretty sure about that. The hole was too small. I walked to the other side of the machine. The hole on that side was slightly bigger. But still, I was confused like a baby in a topless bar. I was very sure that this was the way in which a tachometer was used. May be, I'll have to insert it forcefully, I thought.

I took two steps backwards. With all my strength, I tried to insert the tachometer.

"No... Not like that !!!!"

There came a roar from behind. When turned back, I saw the lab attender running towards me. He grabbed the tachometer.

"Is this your first time here?"

He said in a grim voice. I shrugged as if I was being accused of something which I never knew about. He gave me an angry look and showed me how to use the digital tachometer. For the rest of the experiment, it was him who took the readings. May be he shuddered that I would damage anything.

When I told this to all my friends later, they were all laughing just like they were watching a Jim carry movie or something. What is there to laugh so much... huh?? I handled it very well eventhough I didn't know a thing about all those machines and instruments.didn't I??

What do you guys say??

But its people....

Wanted to draw The CMOS Inverter Layout and here is what i end up doing.

LMAO...I am the one with the first ever cartoon of the blog...Hurray

OOOOH....Desp..I forgot to put my signature in each cartoon..Aj

third time lucky

2 posts in a single day. i saw that and decided to join in.

there is this important thing that i wanted to say for some time. it all started the year we joined cet.

OH! its past 12 and my post would be the first and only one of the next day. that's today. so, another day, adios!

Honey, I shrunk the Economy!

I wonder how we got through so much without commenting on the current economy crisis. I always got stuck at a roadblock when trying to write something about it. I don't know exactly why it happened, how it happened, how much it will affect us or when it will be over. I still don't. So here are some interesting headlines that could scare us, but somehow these headlines always give me some kind of sadistic pleasure. Something in me keeps on saying - din't we say so a year ago?

Some of the headlines i picked up in random.. They seem like a crisis timeline. All through i see the economy declining. Can't believe it was just months before when the Sensex celebrating breaching the 20,000 barrier.

September 15, 2008: Markets in turmoil on Lehman failure

September 29, 2008: FTSE sinks 3.3 percent as worries escalate

September 29, 2008: Bradford & Bingley is nationalised

October 7, 2008: Russia backing Iceland as world crisis spreads

October 8, 2008: IMF sees major global downturn

October 14, 2008:House sales fall to 30-year low

October 14, 2008: Inflation soars to 16-year high in Sept

October 24, 2008: Wall Street joins stock market rout

October 24, 2008 : 19,683 Tech Layoffs And Counting

Still can't see the end of this fall..

U myt b an ngnyr if...

This is a type out of an article that appeared in Mathematics Today magazine in the late 90s. I had gotten hold of a pile of the physics,chemistry and mathematics today magazines from my mom's cousin in the wake of the IIT JEE. When i first saw the article i was so impressed i made a copy of it and stuck it on my wall so that every morning i would wake up reading it! Well.. I never got through the IIT JEE and after reading the article (besides my hardly working attitude and umpteen sleeping disorders i.e.) you will know why!  

So strap on guys, its gonna be a long post! 

You might be an engineer if:

• if you have no life and you can to prove it mathematically!
  
• if you enjoy pain
  
• if you know vector calculus but you cant remember how to do long division
  
• if you chuckle whenever someone says centrifugal force
  
• if you have actually used every single function on your graphing calculator
  
• if when you look in a mirror, you see an engineering major
  
• if it is sunny and 70 degree outside and you are working on a computer
  
• if you frequently whistle the theme song of Macgauver(wat?!)
  
• if you always do homework on friday nights
  
• if you know how to integrate a chicken and take the derivative of water
  
• if you think in Math
  
• if you have calculated that the world series actually diverges
  
• if you hesitate to look at something because you don't want to break down its wave function
  
• if you have a pet named after a scientist
  
• if you laugh at jokes about mathematicians (LMAO!)
  
• if the human society has arrested you because you have actually performed Schrodinger's cat experiment
  
• if you can translate English into binary
  
• if you cant remember whats behind the door in the science building which says EXIT
  
• if you have to bring a jacket with you in the middle of summer because there is a wind chill factor in the lab
  
• if you are completely addicted to caffeine
  
• if you avoid doing anything because you dont want to contribute to the eventual heat death of the universe
  
• if you consider any non-science course easy
  
• if the fun centre of your brain has deteriorated from lack of use(in our case this might be grossly untrue)
  
• if you assume that a Horse is a Sphere to make math easier
  
• if when your professor asks you where your homework is you claim to have accidently determinded its momentum so precisely that according to Heisenberg it could be anywhere in the universe!!
  
• if you understood more than 5 of these indicators
  
• if you make a hard copy if this list and paste it on your door!!  

I understood 6 of them! And did make a hard copy and paste it on my wall!! Jeez!! All the same i'm becoming an engineer now! Who cares about these stupid indicators after all.. 

Ciao and Happy Diwali folks! 

A Moment

There are several moments in life when you feel like.. just enjoying it. You don't do anything, let your mind wander and with the moment would last forever.

Yeh Hosla Kaise Juke,
Yeh Aarzoo Kaise Ruke
Manzil Muskil to kya,
Bundla Sahil to kya,
Tanha Ye Dil to Kya

The song from the film Dor sings softly in my ears. The only other sound is the rain lashing upon the trees outside. Ah! the rain - always gets me in this mood. There's darkness all around. Thank you KSEB. I could light a candle, but doesn't feel like. Tomorrow's series exam is the last thing on my mind (How did it even prop up here?). There are so many beautiful and simple things to think about. 'Simplify!' - that was the title of an article I co-authored in school magazine. The same comes to my mind now as I realize... We often fail to see the beauty of simplicity. The song keeps talking of moving on in life, no matter what. But moving on over what? It's moments like these that refresh you, give you the strength to keep on moving. You just have to shut you eyes and let everything be - for a moment.

PS. My last blog was about the frustration of being idle.. feelings, they never fail to amaze me.

Why you should switch to Octave ?

I have been trying to 'sell' Octave to lots of guys who intend to use Matlab to do their project and my campaign was not well recieved, at least this far. So I am going to tell you why you should ditch Matlab, and get into the Octave bandwagon.

Octave is a free software developed and distributed by the University of Wisconsin, to perform the stuff that Matlab do. It was originally developed by the University of Wisconsin.

Octave is capable of performing real and complex arithmetic for scalars and vectors. Octave programs are written just like Matlab code, with one or two minor modifications. Code written in Matlab is compatible with Octave and vice versa. Octave script files have the .m extension, similar to the Matlab scripts.

Octave's capability can be enhanced by integrating it with Octave Forge, which is a collection of additional toolbox packages, for Octave. This is pretty much like the additional toolboxes available with Matlab.

Octave is a command-line based system and although a GUI is avaialbale, it is still in the alpaha stage and wont give you the experience that Matlab's IDE gives.

I have been trying out Octave for the past few days and I am very impressed by it. What really attracted to me was that the installer was very light, only around 55 MB. Once installed, it took soem time to get around the settings and controls. I tried running some code, that I had written for my project in Matlab, on Octave, and to my surprise it executed without any major change in the code.

I tried using the GUI that comes with Octave and it is good, although it is not a replacement for Matlab's neat IDE. It has pretty much everything that the Matlab IDE has, ie Command Window, Command History, File and Variable Window etc. The command window has a black background, which adds to Octave's geek value. :-) But be warned that OctaveUI is still in the aplha stage, and it is prone to crashes.

Overall, Octave gives you pretty much everything that Matlab can give you. It is a open source software distributed under the GNU General Public License(GPL). So you are actually using something legal, unlike Mtalab, which is used by most of us (read almost all) as a pirated program.

Octave - For

• Open Source Software
  
• Capable of doing almsot everything that Matlab does
  
• Two-way compatibility with Matlab
  
• C++/Java style mathematical operations ( ie it is OK to write i++; whereas in Matlab you have to use the tiresome i=i+1; )
  
• The well-written Octave manual is enough to get you started.
  

Octave - Against

• Lacks a good GUI (this proble will be solved soon, though the alpha version is not that bad)
  
• The Command line version requires some practice to get used to.
  
• The loops and conditional statements like for, if, while etc have a slightly different syntax compared to Matlab.
  

So guys, please try Octave. As I have already mentioned, it is very light, and can be downloaded easily.

Please read the Octave FAQ here.

kannadi collage

Insipid

Today is Tuesday
say how the day?
boring to the core,
raining more and more.

hows life?
full of stuff;
what kinda stuff?
stuff that make you laugh;

is it worth a laugh?
go ask your staff;
what will my staff say?
"are you gay?"

are you in love?
no I'm not;
torn between freedom and love,
I'm all bigot.

its a narrow lane to my house,
narrower is my mind.
my life ain't even a clause,
freedom where shall i find?

what do you seek?
abandon the meek
move free above the ego
alas! something that ain't easy to forgo!!

to be free from bonds,
bonds that create bounds,
then the vim shalt return,
least ways for a sojourn.

how long can you remain idle?

flashback or as the mallu movie goes.. rewind.. drastic rewind..

Three weeks ago we were working on something without a body, without a mind, trying to make the future. Our minds and body were bent on making it work. The robots were made. The battle half won. Who cares about the rest half. Anyway that is past and back to future. I keep haing an obsession of jumping from past to future when the thing that matters most is the present. But present is just a moment while the past and future are immeasurable.

So back to past or the recent past to be exact. What's keeping me busy these days? Nothing. So what's the problem? nothing. No i din't mean there's no problem. Nothing is the problem. You laugh at it, you sleep over it, you wake up and look around at and still don't see. You realize that the nothingness or the lack of anything is nothing if you consider the something days in the past when you had everthing and wanted to have nothing. Those something days.. when you always had something or someone in mind, when pen was mightier than 12 hours of sleep, 8 hours of looking blankly at the computer screen and 4 hours of trying to count the hours in a day.

Since when have you been a workaholic? You'd pride yourself in being the lazy kid. But even while being lazy you'd always tried to keep the brain moving. If it doesn't move, you feel congested, feels like..dead. So wake up buddy. Wake up and see the world.

Who am I talking to?
ah.. Hi John, what's been keeping you busy these days?

"End of all Hope"

"Most of the people don't read the rest when they see the heading, that often happens with me. But never mind,I have learned to live with that".  

1."Is satisfied life different than successful life? If yes which is the better one?"

2. "How do I know whether I am satisfied or not?"

3."Is consistency of opinions through out life be an indication of a satisfied life? "

4. "Can saitisfation ever accompany failure?"

5."Can satisfaction be defined as the ignorance of better oppurtunities"?

6."Will satisfied people always feel happy?'

7."Is success objective?"

8."If success is subjective, can it ever be universal?"

HOTC Ch 5: Step Back to Ponder

I've lost count of how many times I've thought whether it's time I should put this chapter down in HOTC. I've often pondered whether 'some' happenings in S5 was a step back in our college career. But no, they were indeed the times we stepped back to ponder, to be better.

We shifted (college policy) into a new class, but this time around none of us were happy. The class is a wildlife sanctuary - no I'm not talkin about us. During our stay in it, we must've atleast seen 3 generations of Pravukal. Any love for pravu would be over after a year in it. They made nests in the roof ventilators, trained the little ones proffessionally over the ceiling fans and shit (pardon me for offensive language) on our already cramped benches. Nice situation to be in when you're bored by lectures and pondering whether anything's coming your way from the sky. Not much problem afterall, cuz we spent more hours outside than inside. :-D.

Moving onto the other species in the class: We made the most of what we had, sat on benches, jumped over them to move about and concentrated more on..not studies. Maveli arrived early in CET as usual (the real one, not our staff advisor). That years onam celebration didn't have the verve of previous year. Many had gone home and hence participation was less. That didn't dampen the spirits and we had a nice time walking around for onakazhchakal.

As soon as college resumed after onam vacation, planning started for next tour. All of us were really pumped up reminiscing the superb tour we had the year before. But from the beginning the tour was doomed. Two opposing parties came up vouching for the right to conduct the tour. Cold wars came up as both sides refused to let go. Uncertainty continued right up to two days before the tour and finally one side conditionally ceded.

Thus we started off on a tour crisscrossing South India. First to pondicherry, then Bangalore, Mysore, Goa and back to Trivandrum. The atmosphere was kinda subdued on the first night of journey. Pondicherry is a nice place and we had fun at the beach. But the accomodation left much to be debated, especially for gals. That was put up in discussion and discussions about such things during tour is not a good sign. As a group, we had fun throughout the tour. But elsewhere, things didn't improve going onto next place. Efforts were put into force and the tour seemed to be moving for the better. But the final few days proved otherwise. Controversies that would not be forgotten in our college life, that too involving some of my best friends.. I'd better stop at that.

It took a while for the atmosphere to calm down. We didn't have much time 'cuz Shaastra was coming up and this year we were determined to participate in the robotics event. The robo event we took up was Get a Grip. During the first few days of preparation, we understood that we'd hugely underestimated the magnitude of the problem. Finally after reading the problem statement properly, we got off to work on the robo. Aluminium sheets framed our days and dreams during night. Measurements went awry time after time. The whole thing was built and rebuilt and redesigned and rebuilt. I concentrated a huge amount of my time on a circuit which wasn't used ultimately. Few days and sleepless nights later, our robo was still incomplete [did i mention we had stuff and plan to build 2 robos?] - without even proper motors - before departing to IITM.

The Shaastra days still remains some of the most enjoyable days I've had. ur job on the bot wasn't over even after reaching IITM. The final touch took the whole night before the event. I was put in charge of controlling the bot and to my surprise it went smoothly. But tragedy struck in the form of our slightest misjudgement. The blocks we'd to load and unload got stuck onto the foam tape we attached on our gripping mechanism. We took the anticlimax in our stride and enjoyed the next few days to the fullest... Spencer Plaza, Tiffany's, CCD, chatting on hostel roof after 2 am, Ah I can't wait to go for next Shaastra.

We returned back to the boredom of classes and shut down our grey matters for the next few weeks. That year some of us went for IFFK - awesome movies. University exam came unanounced as usual and I don't remember having christmas celebrations. There was nothing much to do in class other than making fancy hairdos and waiting for the KU to postpone exams enough number times so that they get to schedule it right before the biggest hollywood release of the year.

-JFx


Coming up: Ch 6 - Of Nothing Much At All..

Super Dream Inc (::) on Campus

Welcome to the Ppt..ee..
I welcome..e.. our dream company..ee...
Now i BLAH BLAH BLAH...
Thank you!!

Super Dream Inc (::)
...giving wings to future....

Product Portfolio

1.The Ultimate Solar cell..TUSc(::)

TUSc should convert solar energy into stable-recoverable electrical energy which can be stored.It is supposed to produce hydrogen and oxygen directly from water, which allows the storage of energy for later use. This trapped energy can later be recovered by using a fuel cell. Or the hydrogen fuelled vehicles can be run on the hydrogen produced in this way. TUSc is fitted on the top of the homes covering the entire roof so that it produces entire energy for the home and also for the hydrogen fuelled or fuel celled vehicles of the home owners. Since roof area is directly proportional to the power requirement and no. of vehicles in the home, that works well.
Inspiration:In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.
Challenges
1.Finding a cheap catalyst to produce hydrogen and oxygen.
2.Developing low cost and efficient fuel cells.
FAQs
1.Why H2 and O2?
Because is H2 the fuel of the universe. The cleanest fuel ever, producing water on burning, that too clean water.It can be used directly in fuel cells to produce electricity and also in vehicles.
2.Where will you get the water from?
TUSc can work even in salty sea water and you can see a a situation where u supply raw sea water directly to home and they get energy and drinking water from it using TUSc..Possibilities are infinite..

2.THE Hydrogen Engine..THe(::)
Engines which work on hydrogen and can produce up to 10000hp so that they can be used even with jet planes.There are two variants of this version.
1.One in which hydrogen replaces gasoline in IC engines.
2.Fuel cell version.
So vehicles don't need exhaust pipes in future.The advantage of fuel cell type is that they can get energy both as hydrogen and also as electricity which makes it so convenient to refill.
Challenges
1. Controlled combustion of hydrogen
2.Equipment for producing H2 like TUSc
3.Overcoming pressure from Oil Cos.
FAQ
1.Why not the electric engine?
The efficient and mass storage of electric energy in batteries is costly and the cycle is lossy. Also THe may utilise some of the already developed IC engine related technologies like Turbo,Common Rail Injection etc..

3.The REPrinter..TREp(::)
TREp can do all an ordinary all-in-one full fledged color printer can do. But the difference comes from the fact that you never have to refill its cartridge and it can reprint a new document in an already printed paper like a new paper. It extracts ink from the old printed paper thereby erasing the paper and stores it int the cartridge. So if the cat ridge is running low feed in some old printed papers. If you need to print a new document and have unnecessary old printed papers just feed in those papers and get new document. What more you need?,Saving on both paper and cartridges. Now imagine reading those ebooks by printing in TREp. It takes 0.3 seconds to erase a A4 size page and 0.1 seconds to print one A4 size page. Save those bamboos for the pandas.
Challenges
1.Developing the ink extraction technology.
FAQ
1.When will TREp be available on Market?
When Super Dream Inc(::) decides to do so.
2.How much will it cost?
The value of one share of Super Dream Inc(::) at Dow Jones Stock market.

and much more coming soon...visit www.superdreaminc.com

Compensation and Benefits
CTC:Best in the industry.
A world where energy is free..
A world where global warming is not on news..
Paternity leave of 1 year up to 5 children.

Location
Not decided..

Criteria
Willingness to accept defeat.

Thank You..Any Questions?

(::)