First day Internship!

At singapore finally, and here at Raghuraman's place blogging from a Macbook! Exciting indeed! Let me first talk about how this laptop is... Well, I get the Apple PRO touch just like any other Apple products. User friendliness, the looks, performance... it's cool! Cost-we better not talk about it at the moment! Visual features are cool, and the dock, though something that I've used in the transformation pack, is obviously good and more, lets say, genuine here! In all, something that I've always wanted to try and here I am doing it! So, exciting!

Now coming to stuff @ Singapore. Firstly, the place is good! Really good! Be it the cleanliness, the way people follow rules here, the roads, the greenery, the transport-it's cool! And for someone who's come from India, these things are for sure, luring!
Me and Sharvil share the house here, basically a room for ourselves with attached bathroom, 2 separate wardrobes, AC, electronic water heater, a king size bed and a refrigerator, and a hall and kitchen which we share with the owner here. It's comfortable and well connected to all major places around. That's kinda the case with every place here i guess, thanks to the MRT and the buses! 
A funky thing with the transport, something really convenient too, is the EZtravel card we have for both the MRT and buses. You can top it up for how much ever you want, and keep traveling! No tickets, no cash needed for anywhere you go! And taxis services are pretty affordable here. We took a Mercedes Benz taxi (which wouldn't have been the case hadn't the company not accepted to refund it!) to the Ministry of Manpower to get the visa today. Traveled in style you know!
Coming to the company... Infineon Technologies, is an awesome building! Shaped like a ship, it's really unique! 

The best part is not that ofcouse, but how we went there on the first day! We'd planned to visit the office the previous evening itself so that we didn't have to search for it the reporting day, and that we did. We had a chat over a cup of tea with the seniors who're working there. That evening we went to a beach nearby, and planned to jog there the next morning at 0600hrs, then fresh up and leave to office. So what happened the next morning? pretty guessable now, coz that's what happens to all such great plans to great people... We went late!

What happend? Alarm rang at 6, 630, 730, we switched them all OFF, till the owner called at 0830 hrs to say all the best! we had to report at 0900 hrs! and bang! we get out of the bed, get ready, no bath! and took at bus to the MRT, came to a station called Aljunied (from where we gotta take a bus to the office), and got a taxi instead, that costed S$5, and reached office at 0920hrs! Thank God the HR lady wasn't available right then. we were asked to wait. 5 mins, she was there. she briefed us about stuff here. and we got our RFID cards issued (that's funky!). anywhere you go, you need this electronic card for access. we tap it near the door, a reads the code in the card wirelessly, and we're granted access.
met my project superviser, Goh Ban Hok. Sharvil's guy was in a meeting. So my guide took us around and showed me the lab i was gonna work n all.. lots of boards around, and complex instruments! let's see! Well, all looks good and interesting, let's see how my work goes on there!
So that was my first day as an intern - no bath, reported late, but had lots of fun! 

Safari Rocks! And the shameless me!

Alright.. So here I am after a long time again, to talk about yet another browser.. This time by Apple.. Safari! Just out of curiosity, and out of frustration of not able to study (Actually not willing to would be a more suitable term!) connected to DC++, downloaded FarCry game.. which I've been looking for, for a pretty long time. Only one guy has it in three hubs (around 200 users!) put together! Does he have slots? Nope! Just as usual! So what do I do? Try downloading CCS.. For my DSP online. I don't get a single search result for the setup! So chuck! Opened Opera.. the same skin.. Actually was getting bored with that. And the same old speed. Come on man! There's gotta be something faster than Opera! And suddenly this name crops up in my mind.. Safari! Initially a bit hesitant to download coz I didn't wanna fill up my harddrive with softwares that am not gonna use, i search in DC++. Get Safari303 (something like that.. too lazy to shift window and check the actual name!) setup. Install it. The interface is neat.. Very simple. Close buttons placed on the left side of the tabs.. Overall first impression: Just another browser! But something kept telling me that it's an Apple's product, don't underestimate it!
So my favourite site: www.gmail.com! I try that.. Guess what? I press Return, 1..2..3.. (seconds) Gmail:Email from Google page is up and loaded.. completely!
Lazy and pissed till now, I suddenly get all enthued and energetic! Next yahoomail. 2 seconds.. the login page is here.
Just wanted to make sure that it wasn't the net that's got speeded up.. so checked the same sites in opera: gmail: 1..2..3..4..5..6.. Gmail: 7..8..9.. Email from Google! Which means.. Safari Rocks!! Wow!
And then Blogger: Opera: 1....15.. Blogger's up. Safari: 1....5.. Blogger's login page is ready! Man! now this is brilliant! Finally I have probably the fastest browser on the planet! I pity those who don't use Safari! Somehow, it's just proved out to be the best amongst the ones I've worked on!!
APPLE REALLY ROCKS!! Can't wait to lay my hands on their other products! Lets see.. which one to start off with.. iPhone is the first on list.. Hopefully I make a PS station where I can save enough money to get myself an iPhone! Thats the reason am still using my Motorola C115 with a broken LCD (which some believe is a funky screen saver!!)! Next on list.. probably a MacBook! That should pretty much complete my wishlist. I wouldn't need an iPod.. iPhone's gonna make up for that. And other Apple's products.. iTV? Nah.. I'll have no use for it right now. Probably my girl friend would gift me that on our wedding! (Yep.. whats the 6.5LPA for then!?) So we could enjoy that together later!
So approximately when'll I have my wishlist with me.. Lets seee.. Assuming everything goes on well and smoothly.. Financially.. I should be able to get an iPhone by late November!! (thats a very strong function of my PS2 station.. but let's just assume i get into some company that pays me a little over 15k per month!) So I should be able to get myself one. Then.. The MacBook.. hopefully I settle in a job.. which right now is sooo unlikely! Still.. if i were to take a guess, I'd go with August 2011!! Whats special about that particular month? Nothing actually.. except that I proposed my gf on aug 7th.. So all i need to do (incase am in not in a position to get myself a MacBook) is just get a bit psenti with her.. She's definitely gonna ask me what i want.. and somehow just get this thought into her mind!! So then.. I'd have a brand new MacBook (Air? lite!) Shameless I am right!? May be!! :P

After a long time!

Been idle for another long while.. feel so like writing something today... The only problem is I
don't know what to! So I've decided to just put in some interesting stuff I did today.
So lets see... get up at 1050 today. Karteek wakes me up (I slept in his room yesterday night)
And after battling with myself for a long time, get up and decide to attend my 1100hrs lecure!
DSP baby! Something which I've been attending very regularly.
My so called 'guilt' says 'c'mon man! you can't guss this class also! and my brilliant mind says 'light ra! just another class! light ley.. we can copy notes..' but deep within it knows that the 'copying notes' thingy is never gonna happen! So finally.. who wins?! Its my guilt for a change!
I get up.. hesitantly. You know how it feels! Its the most irritating feeling I've ever undergone (everyday, but not got used to it yet!) Up.. and out from bed. Wash my face, brush my teeth with my finger and paste! Put on my shirt and jacket (I obviously wasn't half naked.. i was wearing a t-shirt! ;)) And off to class. 7 minutes late. Ma'am doesn't even care! So good for me!
So DSP class done! Numal class next. But this time, it my mind that wins.. Numal class gussed!
Initially i plan to go to room. but then.. somehow i land up in ipc! probably i was too enthued to create a profile in linkedin.com that karteek had told me the previous night about! Fine.. do I do that? Perfectly! How perfect? I forget to have my lunch! And at arnd the same time, my favourite lady comes online! (nah.. thats not my girl friend! its her mom!) No crazy thoughts.. i really respect her. Hence like her a lot! Nice n simple talk! I liked it. Alas.. didn't last for long. She had a class and left!
So once again.. I do some touch up work with the stuff i'd entered in the profile i'd created. I liked the stuff i'd written. Was satisfied, though it didn't actually seem big!
Then.. came 15oohrs. ADVD class! Should i attend? This time.. no hesitation. ATTEND! No other go. I guss.. Am screwed! Class goes pretty interesting.. Next hour EMF. I really wanna guss this class.. But Utsav the idiot drags me along to the class! some guy handles it, starts off with a lot of electrostatics crap! Damn boring class..
Finally that guy decides to leave us early. Me and utsav go to ipc and decide which assignment we're gonna select in ADVD. Once thats done, I go meet the EEE group leader, vk c chaubey coz he wanted to. nothing important.. just wanted me to submit some project report.
Then meet harini's wing to submit her resume. And back to hostel.. have dinner. come to room. Look at my laptop.. it wants me to watch a movie! :P So I do! A Walk to remember. downloaded from DC++. Turns out to be a real good movie.
Then. do i wanna sleep? No way! Its just 2330! So what do I do? I open my browser.. Flock. Its kinda slow to startup. May be coz its running in vista. May be coz am a fool to run vista on
512 mb ram! I don't care! It needs to run! i search.. for the fastest browser. And turns out that there's some guy who's done a very very extensive study on many kinds of browsers.. ranging from IE to safari.. on all OSs! The obviously best one is Opera! I download the latest version.. 9.25. Install. I didn't like the plain look very much. So decided to give it some funk! Downloaded a real funky skin. And I fall in love with it! Its sooo cool! Check out..

And its fast.. both start up, operating with multi tabs and also the speed for rendering.. its great! guess i'll stick to this. bye to flock for now!! Truth to be said, its one of the best browsers I've seen. I like it too.. somehow am kinda attached to it! don't know why!! I wont uninstall it. But just won't be using for a while!
Dont worry Flock! I love you!
And now i really feel like typing a lot.. but don't know what to. Anyway.. just start typing.. and all this's come out!!
Nevertheless, am sure I've had fun writing down all this. And someday, when i check
out what i did in my BITSian life, this's gonna come up! It'd be cool!!

Industry Defined Problem

That was junkyard wars which kept us busy the last three days of shaastra. but why did we go there in the first place?! coz we were selected for the final presentation for an event called IDP.. GE sponsored. we came third.. and GE gives summer internships at The GE John F. Welch Technology Centre, Bangalore. totally excited about it! waiting...
here's the pic of all three prize winners. first prize IITM. second.. a college from vizag. third.. BITS Pilani! standing amidst the panel of judges fro GE.
Now coming to the other teams.. abhinav 2nd year wins the first prize in Science Fiction writing competition. Civil guys 2nd year get a consolation 6th or 7th in Master builder. and Team Shona gets a consolation (4th place) in Fire n Ice.
Oh! and ya.. my wingies (siva, selp, terror, bile and lingam).. participated in Capture the Flag, a robotics event. made it almost till the semis. and a 2nd yearites team (gaurav, gaurang, anshul, gaurav gupta, manish) for the same event.. did pretty well, but not quite! a couple of second yearties (bineet and sartak) participate in coding events. good effort but again.. something missing!
Congrats to all the winners! and for those who missed it this time.. dont worry guys. this is just the first techfest.. you'll definitely rock in the ones to come. after all.. "participation is more important than winning right?!" but just that winning gets you slightly more appreciation! no worry.. stay always ready!
So BITS Pilani basically did pretty good in Shaastra 2K7! We Rocked! We'll keep rockin!

Chaloooo!!!

That pic was during the prize distribution ceremony of Junky yard wars. Bosch official sponsor. from left standing: Karteek, Ankur, me, Susheel and some Bosch guys!
Now video time! this is the trial run we'd taken with our 'Auto' (evident from its looks!) pucca chennai auto coz it doesnt have breaks! and thanks to karteek for that real professional video recording! esp towards the end!!

The next video is the best one! having done two main runs @12 sec and 11 sec, it was time for some action and adventure! attempting the world's greatest stunt of all times! (thats is, definitely, coz look whose pushing me!! Chaloo....!!)

Shortly after that..

Following that one was another nasty fall from our IIT counterparts! a bad one indeed! check out this NDTV coverage for more details.. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videopod/default.aspx
Search for Test Drive. you'll find the one for junkyard wars. i'm unable to download it completely. shall try to post it soon! Enjoy!

hindu article!

Well, IIT M techfest.. Shaastra was good. check out this article! (totally unexpected. we thought the reporter zubeda was some iit student who was generally asking us some questions! the next day's newspaper was really a shock! hehe!)

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Day Three of Shaastra: ingenius ideas abound

Zubeda Hamid
DREAM MACHINE: Students building a vehicle for a contest held as part of ‘Shaastra 2007’ at IIT-Madras in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: It was hard to imagine that anything in IIT Madras’s junkyard could actually be used. Backless chairs, mangled wheelbarrows and broken tube lights littered the area. Among the rubbish the organisers of ‘Junkyard Wars’ had scattered useful items: tyres (second hand) and metal rods. It was up to the six teams that qualified from over 400 to wade through the junk and look for things that would help build a vehicle.

‘Junkyard Wars’, one of the many competitions on Day Three of ‘Shaastra’, IIT Madras’s annual inter-collegiate technical festival, involved teams putting together a vehicle that could be manually operated. Once ready, the vehicles with the riders would have to pass under a stick held at three feet, navigate six turns and ride through a 50-metre course of road and sand.

“It wasn’t that difficult. We are used to this in college,” said G. Susheel, a student of BITS-Pilani, whose team has been working on the vehicle since Friday morning. Since the organisers supplied the teams with a moped engine, it was not very difficult, other students said. Finding the smaller part needed though, was a challenge, another team member A. Jaideep added.

Another event, ‘Master Builder’, saw students putting together a transmission line tower with sections of aluminium. Built over two-and-a-half days, the towers will be tested for both strength and cost-effectiveness.

“We received about 25 designs and selected the best 10 for the competition,” a ‘Shaastra’ volunteer said.

teacher!!

Well.. Blogging after a really long time!! not that i didnt find time for it!! just that i was too lazy for it or didnt have much stuff to write!! today however i thought i'd try and shed my lazyness and write something.. basically triggered from when i finished watching this movie.. rat-a-touille (what ever.. im sure i got the spelling wrong!!)
anyway.. the point is not the movie! i was really inspired by gusteav's belief.. "any one can cook!!" and the fact that a rat learns cooking makes it all the more interesting and inspiring.. so that kinda set me thinking (which doesnt happen usually, somehow this time it did!!)
afterall.. its not just with cooking its like that.. its true for every field you take.. i truly believe that every person has a lot of potential.. potential to excel in any field. may be that in some they may perform better than in others.. that buds basically from the interest they put into it.. but one thing is for sure.. there is no one who deserves to be called or call himself a 'loser'.
just because one does not succeed in his endeavour need not mean that he's not good at it.. and gives him no reason to put down himself in any way. as it goes.. practice makes a man perfect. that very rightly applies to life.. afterall.. you can never move forward if you keep thinking about what you've left behind or lost in life!! it might sometimes happen that no matter how many times you try, you still dont get it right.. well in that case, it might just be that you chose something that doesnt suit your attitude, or just that there's something missing in your effort.
but that raises another question.. how do you get that 'right thing' in life!? well, a tough question, but answerable. answerable if you are willing to take a simple risk call 'trying to answer it!' think im crapping!? may be.. but just read on.. (!! after all you've made it this long!!)
what i mean by that is, you just cant do everything in life perfectly the first time you do it. well if anyone you know has done that, he's the biggest loser in life!! coz he's just not experienced what life's got to offer him!! fortune favours the brave.. so try and be one.. you better start experimenting with life before it puts you to the test. keep your options open at all times.. and never hesitate to try something new.. afterall, the worst thing that could happen to you is what? failure?! big deal man!! you might find yourself in an embarrasing position this moment. and you think all that you've done towards that particular goal is worth nothing? and quit?! every tiny effort of yours, good or bad will be rewarded. its not fate as some might call it. to me its just another law of nature.. just like change is. so may be now you feel depressed.. fine.. be sad.. but let it not take its toll. in such times no one is your worst enemy than you yourself. so just beware!! it is such moments that shape your attitude towards life, shape your future.. treat them as gas refilling stations in your long journey towards your goal.. whatever it is. and NEVER ever give up. just as i said earlier, you might be in a very bad postition right now. but if you actually look at what the basic reason was, for your failure, its just gonna be another human!! so think about it.. is it worth paying attention to a 'someone' s dislike and give up your years of effort? please.. never!! its his position which gives him the right to dispose off your effort, or result. and that position is not gonna stay for long with him!! remember.. let it not be a person who judges your future.. you are the one whos living your life.. you make the decisions and you decide whats right and whats not. nothing wrong in seeking advice. but make the decision for yourself. do just what you feel is right. (obviously as long it doesnt cause any harm to any one.. that is definitely the constraint you are woking under.. and the only constraint!!)
let whatever you do be of some use, not just to yourself, but to someone in this world. may be someone you know.. may be a stranger.. thats not important.. you may earn a lot today. but is that what you want to be know as, after you? as a guy, (just another) whos earned so much..
or do you wanna be called The guy, helped so many people to come up in life? i'd chose the latter definitely.
opportunities are everything in this world. everything that you've learned, everything you've gained in life could go waste if that one instance, called the opportunity is not given. and they just dont come to you. you have to go towards them. and theres only one thing that stops you from doing that.. you!
this takes me to the last (!!!) thing i wanted to include in this blog. its not difficult to find this opportunity for you probably. the very fact that you're able to read this blog is because you've got something that so many are not able to. shall i call that comfort, to be very simple!? but there are a whole lot, who are still waiting for the right opportunity, to transform their lives. to improve their condition.. this is where the role of a teacher comes in. who would you point to, if i asked you who is responsible for your current position? for all the comfort tht you are at present enjoying?! you may point to so many, but ultimately, it reduces to that one person whos constant effort to provide you with a brighter future has payed off, whos given you everything you know right now.. thats a teacher. in somecases this may not be an outsider.. what im referring to as a teacher is, anyone whos taught you something in life, you could benefit from.
and thats the best thing that one could enjoy.. that only a teacher can.. that is, the pleasure of his/her students gain knowledge from her and go higher up in life. it not coz he/she couldnt get a job that they are teaching! not at all. they're sacrificing so much in their lives to help make yours better. thats one thing you definitely need to realise.
when i think about whos given me all the knowledge that im able to share with in the clubs i've started, it always boiled down to my parents first, and then my teachers. these teachers im referring to, may have taken various forms, some my school teachers themselves, some my parents, friends, relatives, seniors.. someone told me this.. "no matter how much construction technology progresses, ladders will always be there. without them nothing's gonna happen.. so are teachers." ya.. thats true.. teachers are like ladders.. we climb upon them for a brighter future, for a higher goal that we wanna achieve. they are just inevitable from this world or our lives.
alright.. having said all that, it may look as if i'm gonna take up teaching as my profession! but to be frank.. not at all!! atleast for now, though i may like it, i'm not going to do that! just like someone has pointed out in their comment, that money is important in life. i believe in that too.
but one thing's for sure, whatever job i might be doing, wherever i am, one thing i'll never hesitate to do or one thing i'd always do, is teaching..
thats my view. having read it, you decide yours!