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I am the alpha and the omega
 
April 30, 2004
Brown's Law of Business Success
Our customer's paperwork is profit. Our own paperwork is loss.

Well, first things first.
My exams are over.
No yeay and all that; as I had only three courses this semester, and only one tough one among all of them. Too bad, there is nothing like a true challenge nowadays. But I am still stuck up at college, as I have to do my project. The most major part, the Verilog coding, I have finished it, tested it, showed to my guide, who was happy and then now I am writing my report. 50 pages at that. And I have written a measly 26 pages till now, 3 Chapters that is. Still 4 more chapters and god knows how many pages more. But I'll finish it, I know. And hope to submit it by the 10th of May.
10th of May is incidentally the voting day here. And yours truly doesn't have a Voter ID. So I am going to do what I repeated to Shobhs. I will go there with my passport and if possible, my ration card, and if they dont allow me to vote, then its not my problem.
To continue on, many people complain that I am not updating as often.
Well it so happens that I follow a strict schedule. In the initial blog days, I put one post a day, as I had a lot of stuff to write about. Then it went down to once in 2 days, and now its once in three days. As time -> infinity, the gap between posts will surely increase, but wont stop altogether. I wont give up now, not after I lost Niharika to that. I will continue atleast until I put foot on Uncle Sam's land. And probably a few weeks after that. And then I will continue hoping that my studies will not be affected. But rest assured, I will update my blog twice a week in the upcoming hols.
I just read two Artemis Fowl books, written by Eoin Colfer. Actually, I read the first book and the second one - The Arctic Incident. For those not familiar with his genre of stories, it can be classified as the action of Tomb Raider, the magic of Harry Potter and the techs of James Bond all combined into one story, all combined to produce a marvellous fast paced resultant story. A must read for any Harry Potter lover and a welcome change for others.
To finish this post, I am very glad to say that, myself and my cousin are going to buy a comp on Monday, the 3rd of May, from the ever so famous Ritchie Street (well, its like the Lamington Road in Mumbai). Its a decent configuration, enough to suffice my gaming needs for two months, and the price does not burn a hole in your pocket. I am hoping my next post is from that comp.
To conclude, I am giving the aforementioned treat to my college friends, in celeberation of my successful application to higher studies. Its a huge contingent thats going there. Hope they dont get scared.
To finally wrap it up, I suggest that you people using yahoo messenger should download the Yahoo Messenger. It has a verypseud interface, just like MSN Messenger , and I was introduced to it, thanx to Neha.
Sianora People

Posted by satosphere at 6:03 AM

April 27, 2004
Brown's Law
Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.

I just couldn't resist putting this forward, aptly titled,
Normal Student Vs GRE student

Have your Dictionary or WordWeb nearby, you are in for a laughy ride.
  • Normal Person : People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
    GRE Student : Individuals who make their abodes in vitreous edifices would be advised to refrain from catapulting perilous projectiles.
  • Normal Person : Twinkle, twinkle, little star
    GRE Student : Scintillate, scintillate, asteroid minim.
  • Normal Person : All that glitters is not gold.
    GRE Student: All articles that coruscate with resplendence are not truly auriferous.
  • Normal Person : Beggars are not choosers.
    GRE Student : Sorting on the part of mendicants must be interdicted.
  • Normal Person : Dead men tell no tales.
    GRE Student : Male cadavers are incapable of rendering any testimony.
  • Normal Person : Beginner's luck.
    GRE Student : Neophyte's serendipity.
  • Normal Person : A rolling stone gathers no moss.
    GRE Student : A revolving lithic conglomerate accumulates no congeries of small, green, biophytic plant.
  • Normal Person : Birds of a feather flock together.
    GRE Student: Members of an avian species of identical plumage tend to congregate.
  • Normal Person : Beauty is only skin deep.
    GRE Student : Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.
  • Normal Person : Cleanliness is godliness.
    GRE Student : Freedom from incrustations of grime is contiguous to rectitude.
  • Normal Person : There's no use crying over spilt milk.
    GRE Student : It is fruitless to become lachrymose of precipitately departed lactile fluid.
  • Normal Person : You can't try to teach an old dog new tricks.
    GRE Student : It is fruitless to attempt to indoctrinate a superannuated canine with innovative manoeuvers.
  • Normal Person : Look before you leap.
    GRE Student : Surveillance should precede saltation.
  • Normal Person : He who laughs last, laughs best.
    GRE Student : The person presenting the ultimate cachinnation possesses thereby the optimal cachinnation.
  • Normal Person : All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
    GRE Student : Exclusive dedication to necessitous chores without interludes of hedonistic diversion renders Jack a hebetudinous fellow.
  • Normal Person : Where there's smoke, there's fire!
    GRE Student : Where there are visible vapours having their provenance in ignited carbonaceous materials, there is conflagration.


Posted by satosphere at 12:30 PM

April 23, 2004
(Jerry) Brown's Law
Too often I find that the volume of paper expands to fill the available briefcases.

I must say that it is quite a while (by my standards). Been quite busy lately - is the reason that I would quote without qualms now, as its very true. For example - I had two end-semester examinations today, one in German Studies (which painfully involved a lot of writing) and the other in Biomedical Systems (whose writing was twice that of the above - leaving my hand in a painful mess). More than the hand, it is my head which is suffering more because of the reading (read mugging) for the two courses, which kept me completely occupied 16 hours yesterday. To top all that, I started thinking too much, which I dont normally do, but then againg, this was not normal circumstances. I was thinking about, apart from the two exams, about the flaws in my coding for my project and how to rectify, even thoough I was one km away from the lab. A more attributable reason to my headache was that from Wednesday morning, I had managed to catch only 9 hours of sleep till even now - 60 hours later. I was down at the lab till about 5 am in the morning on Thursday.... :)
Neways, I hope to put a lot of coding hours into the weekend, and hope to finish the programming part of my project by that, and following another exam next week, start the documentation and the report writing.
An interesting break on Wednesday nite, a couple of my friends who are going to US univs, one to MIT and another to Columbia (in the Big Apple) gave a treat to a huge contingent (about 35) of guys (yeah - no girls) in Residency hotel. Had a sumptuous buffet dinner, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I, on my part, along with another of my friend who got into Georgia Tech are giving a treat @ Residency towers next Friday, to a similarly large group (which is not going to be light on the purse, so I have to start saving now ;-) ).
I will hopefully invite all of you to a separate treat when the time is ripe.
My dreams of playing games the way they are meant to be played has started showing cracks, mainly due to me. I kindof realised that it is a rather foolish expenditure of money. I am going to buy a simpler system, 8k lesser, but still play games, but definitely not in all its graphical glory.
So long.

Posted by satosphere at 6:50 AM

April 19, 2004
Brontosaurus Principle
Organizations can grow faster than their brains can manage them in relation to their environment
Here is a forward that has been doing rounds recently
TEACHER : Why are you late?
BALGOBIN : Because of the sign.
TEACHER : What sign?
BALGOBIN : The one that says, "School Ahead, Go Slow."
TEACHER : Balgobin, why are you doing your math sums on the floor?
BALGOBIN : You told me to do it without using tables!
TEACHER : Balgobin, how do you spell "crocodile"?
BALGOBIN : "K-R-O-K-O-D-A-I-L"
TEACHER : No, that's wrong
BALGOBIN : Maybe it's wrong, but you asked me how I spell it!
TEACHER : What is the chemical formula for water?
BALGOBIN : "HIJKLMNO! "!!
TEACHER : What are you talking about?
BALGOBIN : Yesterday you said it's H to O!
TEACHER : Balgobin, go to the map and find North America.
BALGOBIN : Here it is!
TEACHER : Correct. Now, class, who discovered America?
CLASS : Balgobin!
TEACHER : Balgobin, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.
BALGOBIN : Me!
TEACHER : Balgobin, why do you always get so dirty?
BALGOBIN : Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.
BALGOBIN : Dad, can you write in the dark?
FATHER : I think so. What do you want me to write?
BALGOBIN : Your name on this report card.
TEACHER : How can you prevent diseases caused by biting insects?
BALGOBIN : Don't bite any.
TEACHER : Balgobin, give me a sentence starting with "I".
BALGOBIN : I is...
TEACHER : No, Balgobin. Always say, "I am."
BALGOBIN : All right... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."
TEACHER : "Can anybody give an example of "COINCIDENCE?"
BALGOBIN : "Sir, my Mother and Father got married on the same day, same time."
TEACHER : "George Washington not only chopped down his father's Cherry tree, but also admitted doing it. Now do you know why his father didn't punish him?"
BALGOBIN : "Because George still had the axe in his hand?"
BALGOBIN : Daddy, have you ever been to Egypt?
FATHER : No. Why do you ask that?
BALGOBIN : Well, where did you get THIS mummy then?
TEACHER : Wh! at a pair of strange socks you arewearing, one is green and one is blue with red spots!
BALGOBIN : Yes it's really strange. I've got another pair just like that at home.
TEACHER : Now, children, if I saw a man beating a donkey and stopped him, what virtue would I be showing?
BALGOBIN : Brotherly love?
TEACHER : Now, Balgobin, tell me frankly do you say prayers before eating?
BALGOBIN : No sir, I don't have to, my mom is a good cook.
TEACHER : Balgobin, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?
BALGOBIN : No, teacher, it's the same dog!
TEACHER : What do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
BALGOBIN : A teacher

Posted by satosphere at 11:38 PM

April 17, 2004
Brooks' First Law
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

Yesterday (16th), we had something in our hostel called the hostel nite - a once-a-year nite of revelry and celebration of all that the hostel has given us, to showcase the talents of the upcoming members of the hostel, and to poke a dig at the outgoing batch of students.
To join in that nite of fun @ joy, students also invite people from other hostels, from outsides, and the Mommy's Boy also invite their parents. Of course, the most coveted invites will be the non-males from Sharavati - the girl's hostel in our campus.
Before the hostel nite begins, something called an RG (just a funny write-up) is written for all the seniors; the contribution to it being from all the other seniors so that the person being written about does not know what is written about him.
The events in the hostel nite include speeches by the various secretaries of the hostel, followed by dinner, then events organised by the hostel junta and finally what is called a toast where the juniors of the hostel, toast to all the outgoing seniors. Here, special incidents of all the seniors are mentioned, greatly exaggerated, much to the embarrasment and blushing of the senior whose toast is being done. Mostly it revolves around the love-life of that guy, his acad studness, his cultural activities enthuness, sports participations and all that, including funny incidents that marks his turning points of his life @ IIT. Though of course, the best toasts are those which give out secrets of that person when he has not revealed them at all. It gives a nice suspense to the activities.
The better thing about this particular hostel-nite was a video that all the 4th years made of the outgoing students in the hostel - It included everybody. We started shooting on Wednesday, on two digi-cams, and storing the one-minute clips on computer. The camera work was done by a Guy called Aneesh, who, if you see the videos, will think that he is the next Mani Ratnam - the creative ideas and cinematography was just amazing - amazingly funny that is. All the hostelites put enthu for doing this production work, even the hostel security and the Gate security guy had some guest appearances.
2 days of nite-outs were put in order to join these clips (speeded up) to form one contiguous movie, with an eclectic mixture of sound-tracks in the background (Unfortunately, those digicams couldnt store audio), to come to a total length of half-hour.
The end result was an amazing piece of work, well loved by everybody, and a must have for all the outgoing students (Including me).
So long, bye for now.

Posted by satosphere at 1:39 AM

April 13, 2004
Brook's Laws
If at first you don't succeed, transform your data set.

Day-lite Robbery
Well, this is one incident of day-lite robbery, which took place in my hostel yesterday. The happenings go something like this.
Time : 12:30 PM.
A guy in the hostel called P had a laptop in his room. He just latched the room and came out to the cot in the wing corridor where there were a few other hostelites having a general fart (aka chat) session. (It is called fart, because all that comes out from that chat session is smelly gas from the mouth, akin to the normal fart gas that our body produces) Half an hour later, our man returns to his room. Surprise of surprise - his laptop his gone. (Yours truly was in the opposite wing of the hostel doing a presentation with another guy - So I am no way involved in all of this.)
Soon, the Institute Security was called and they were doing some sort of investigation and stuff, the details of which I wont delve into - for I nay not know the details of it.
But I can premise that it should have been and inside job. The reason being that the cot where that fart session was going on, and the cot in the opposite wing (where, to no surprise, another fart session was also going on) are the only two exits from that floor (Oh I forgot to mention that this took place in the second floor) and any outsider taking a laptop would have been easliy noticed by even the most sleepy eyed guys in the cot.
But still, 3 hours later, there have been no results as of yet. Me thinks that they are still searching. Will know only when I go to college tomorrow.
But what is this world coming to: students stealing laptops. Next thing we know, they will soon start having guns and ransack the entire institute. Something must be done, SERIOUSLY

UPDATE
The laptop has been found later (on the same day - I wasnt there when it was found). It was actually found in the opposite wing, wrapped completely in newspaper. Nobody knows how it got there. But Mr. P is now thankful.

On a separate note, Yours truly again decided to buy a new computer to satisfy his gaming needs. The current one does have the requirements to play the present day psued graphics games. Am still working on a suitable configuration. With a budget of 35k, the costliest item apart from the processor is going to be a graphics card that will satisfy the ideal of Playing games the way they are meant to be played.

Posted by satosphere at 12:01 AM

April 09, 2004
Broder's Law
Anybody that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.
Sorry for not being there and doing that.
Been busy for a while, a long while, what with projects and assignments and posters (yeah, you heard me rite - posters. Hmmm, why would a guy doing Electrical Engineering do posters - well its for another course called German Studies; it did come out very well in the end.) and presentationsand name it, I would have to do it.
The last week was so horrible and jam packed that I felt I needed 48 hours per day, that much work, so I deferred some work to the following week.
This kind of pressure situation often happens to me, and I think I am rite when I say that it happens to 95% of the readers. How much ever we plan, there will always come this time-crunching periods. This is because we plan for what we know will occur. This crunching comes because what we dont know has occured. It is during these periods that we have to remain calm, think with proper foresight, and manage time effectively - that is the lesson that this time crunching period teaches us.
During my exam times, or heavy assignment time, my mind is always thinking about the past events, the present actions and future consequences, and I am always trying to correlate all of them and this helps us to get thru difficult periods. This experience, is for me, the essence of Undergrad college education; an experience that one must never try to avoid. For once we get through that, we will be amazed at our own managerial abilities, and gives us a confidence boost. That is one of the lessons of life.
On a separate note, I just recieved my offer of Financial Aid, and the details on when to be there at UT Austin, accomodation, academical procedures, financial issues and all other nifty details. My I-20 form for Visa application, according to the Graduate Advisor there, would come in about a month (Damn these Snail Mails
Signing off

Posted by satosphere at 12:51 PM

April 05, 2004
Brinks's Observation
No armored car loaded with bags of money ever turned over and spilled its load in the street, in a good neighborhood.
Two items of late that would interest me.

  1. Google's new email service - Gmail
    Google's new email service - as many of you would have already read in the papers, is one that will come up soon, and with its 1 GB of storage space, it will pose serious competition to the current dominators Yahoo Mail and Hotmail. Its other features including search within mail and grouping of mails as part of conversation would sure turn a few heads. Their exact quotes :
    Gmail is a free, search-based webmail service that includes 1,000 megabytes (1 gigabyte) of storage. The backbone of Gmail is a powerful Google search engine that quickly recalls any message an account owner has ever sent or received. That means there's no need to file messages in order to find them again.
    When Gmail displays an email, it automatically shows all the replies to that email as well, so users can view a message in the context of a conversation. There are no pop-ups or banner ads in Gmail, which places relevant text ads and links to related web pages adjacent to email messages.

    I estimate that when they start the service, a million users will probably sign up in the first day itself. What say???

  2. Breaking the 5 Ghz barrier
    This was an article I came across recently while going through the pages of Tom's Hardware guide.
    What do you think is the speed of the processor that is under the hood of the system you are using to read this ? 1.4Ghz? , 2 Ghz. Can it be more than 3.4 Ghz (thats the fastest processor that Intel has released. Using AMD. Then it cannot possibly go above 2.4 Ghz.
    How much do you think your processor can be overclocked? (i.e. raising the speed of the processor). Probably a few 100 Mhz, thats it.
    Then you must read this article, wherein they push a Pentium 3.2 Ghz processor past the insurmountable (until this) 5 Ghz mark, creating a new speed record for processors for Desktops (though I doubt if this setup can ever be used as a desktop :-) - See the picture below)
    Breaking the sound barrier for processors

    It uses a liquid nitrogen based cooling system in order to cool the processor and a compressor (similar to that of the refridgerator) to cool the motherboard. The processor consumes about 96 amperes of current at peak operation (For a comparison - remember ur AC - that consumes less than 15 Amperes).

Enjoy the week.

Posted by satosphere at 11:50 PM

April 03, 2004
Brien's First Law
At some time in the life cycle of virtually every organization, its ability to succeed in spite of itself runs out.

Doggie Style
Every Saturday morning, a friend of mine, Mr P and me cycle to the nearby Beasant Nagar beach. And by morning, I mean, really early morning; waking up at the likes of 5:30 am and leaving by 5:45am. We go there by our trusty cycles, covering the short 4-5km journey in about 15-20 minutes, on pot-holed roads that would make the lunar surface child's play. But more than that journey, its the joy of being at the beach, early in the morning, among all the walkers, waiting for the sun to rise. Usually it plays hide and seek among the clouds, and never have I seen it directly rise from the sea.
We then hang about near the water for a bit, straddle along with the walkers, and just enjoy the cool breeze before the hot sun soon starts shining on us. We usually reach there by around 6:05, and leave there by around 7am, depending on the temperature. And while coming back, we take a longer route (6km) long.
Today too, it was much the same, though we saw the sun rise directly from the sea, and we also left early, it became too hot by 6:30!!. But it was the journey back, while cycling in the campus that the real fun started.
We actually have to travel 3km inside the campus to reach the hostel zone. A few minutes after entering the campus, a dog (Yes, read my lips, a DOG) started following us. We were, at that moment, cycling very slowly, and it was just gently running along us; with what intention, I nay not know. But just happily panting along. It seemed to be attracted to both cycles, and was following both of them alternately. This, we did for about a kilometer; still following us.
And we, as usual, were desparate to get rid of it; one reason partly being the fact that there is this crazy dog, chumma following us and we didnt want to end up in hospital with a counting practice upto 16 (the number of possible injections) , and secondly there are lots of other dogs in the campus who wouldn' mind shedding blood (not necessarily their own) to protect their territory when this one follows us into one of theirs.
So I decided to take the initiative; I decided that I would go a bit faster in order to lose the dog. Go faster, I did. I kept increasing speed and after a while, I was surprised to see that the dog was still galloping near my heels. My friend, at that moment, was far behind me, praying to God that the dog stopped following him. I, on the other hand, went off like a rocket, at speeds that the cycling contingent would consider as serious competition. I was pedalling so furiously, reaching speeds of about 35-40 kmph (I think), afraid at all times that I may lose balance. And finally, it stopped, and I did slow down, much to the surprise of some walkers there, who would have probably seen a blur pass by. It retreated, and found another cyclist to follow.
My friend caught up with me, and we both had uncontrollable fits of laughter. I am still unable to get over it.

Posted by satosphere at 3:19 AM

 

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