ARAVIND's musiNGs

My Quest for Output

2007-12-22T11:10:00.000+05:30

June 2006

It was a fine Wednesday morning. I was in the Digital Electronics Lab. That’s another way of saying I had the Digital Lab exams that Wednesday. My Basic Electronics Lab had gone terribly bad 2 days before, on Monday. But that disappointment didn’t prevent me from working hard to convert binary codes to gray codes. My question for the exam was comparatively easy one. After we get the question, we need to design the circuit to obtain the output, obtain a ‘proceed’ from the teacher in charge and then wire the circuit. This Lab is considered easier compared to some other Labs. That day, with great difficulty I finally converted binary codes to gray codes. So I walked out of the Lab, half-expecting to see the whole college waiting outside to applaud me. Nobody outside seemed to be bothered, so I walked away from Lab not knowing that it might be the last ‘output’ in my engineering life.

December 2007

Three eventful semesters passed. I wrote many more Lab exams, some regular, and some compulsory improvement. The inputs kept changing, but the oscillators never showed any sign of life when I was operating them.

The eighth semester classes began in December. And the seventh semester labs were scheduled on the third week of December. Followed by Christmas holidays. I liked the latter part of the schedule. But this time I wanted the ‘holy grail’, the sign on my answer sheet reading ‘output obtained’. My preparations were good, considering the previous Labs. I had spent enough time in front of the books. And I even found time to watch the entire Liverpool-ManU and Arsenal-Chelsea matches. I was brave enough to face the exam unlike many of my friends who claimed they had chicken-pox and bunked the exam. They would have Lab exams in January. Maybe I wasn’t being brave, it was simply because I didn’t want to have dreams of Labs during my Christmas holidays, with smoking IC’s and viva-voce conducted by aliens.

Monday, 17^th December.

Exam day mornings are always the same for me, the alarm failing in its attempt to wake up its owner, the search for hall-ticket, buying pens, pencils etc. That Monday it was not different. Seeing the question I got for the Communication Lab, I was rather amused than being heartbroken. At first glance I thought the question was a mistake. The girl sitting next to me got the same question as mine and was looking bewildered. If she couldn’t find a solution, I knew I shouldn’t even think about an answer. So I relaxed until I was called for viva. The examiner bombarded me with questions, which if asked in Chinese rather than English, would have made no difference to me. She was constantly referring to something called ‘frequency spectrum’. I pledged my innocence. 5 minutes into the viva, she was absolutely sure I knew nothing about what it was and further questioning would be a waste of time. By the time she let me go I was dreaming about the Christmas holidays and heard something that sounded like ‘ashamed’, ‘final year student’, ‘disgrace’ etc…

Wednesday, 19^th December.

I decided to write the second Lab exam Called MASM, again being brave. (This is the first time it occurred to me that MASM must have a full-form). The question I got was again a tough one. If someone knows the e-mail ID of the fellow who told “Luck favors the brave” please do me a favor. Send me the ID, I just want to say ‘hi’ to him. Still somehow I wrote a program, and managed a ‘partial output’; the ‘partial output’ and ‘no output’ are based on the mindset of the staff in charge. They are basically the same. So, no ‘output’ again for me. With eighth semester having no Lab exams, my dream of ‘output obtained’ may remain a dream, unless the seventh semester results give me another chance. I’m not saying I would love to have another try.

This post is dedicated to my friend, who is bored of reading forwarded messages and asked me to post something in my blog. I hope it was not as boring as those forwarded messages.

The Devil's Laugh

2007-10-30T00:00:00.000+05:30

It was a peaceful morning.

When I say peaceful, I mean I didn't have to wake up early to reach my college towards the end of first hour to get the hour's attendance. I didn't have to calculate and recalculate the attendance percentages and decide which subject hours to attend. All this because the academic calendar says this week is study holidays. So I had my full quota of sleep, the usual channel surfing and net surfing, and a heavy lunch. After all this hard work in the mornings, afternoons are devoted to sleep and that day it was not different.All this changed with a phone call.

I was half-asleep when my friend called. The fact that he wouldn't call without a reason and that we were eagerly awaiting our sixth semester results rung no warning bells. So the news left me cursing the university for being so strict in valuation. I didn't want to think further about it and so connected the internet to check the premier league television timings that evening. Sometimes soccer can be a healer. I clicked the Mozilla icon and waited for it to load, only to hear the devil's laugh. The gods were apparently angry with me and even the devil laughed at my face. It was then that I decided the devil will never laugh again. Maybe I was finding an outlet for my anger and frustration.

Previously the w32.USBWorm also known as Mozilla virus was stopped every time I start the system by opening the Task Manager and deleting the svchost.exe in the username category of the process tab. But then this time I was determined to eliminate it completely. The browser war between IE and Mozilla doesn't mean the users have to bear the consequences. The virus also prevents the user from accessing youtube and orkut sites. The worm spreads via thumb drives, data cards and storage discs, using the computer's Autorun feature. Unfortunately, none of the anti virus programmes including Nortan, McAfee and AVG has been able to detect the Virus. A quick search gave me the answers.

Navigate to C:/Heap41a and delete the contents of this hidden folder. Then run 'regedit' search for heap41a. Delete the "[winlogon] C:\heap41a\svchost.exe C:\heap(some number)\std.txt" file and close the regedit. I felt better because later that evening Chelsea FC humbled Manchester City 6-0. Now that w32.USBWorm and Mr.Eriksson know were they belong to, it was my turn to laugh at the devil.

advantage TENNIS

2007-06-24T22:14:00.000+05:30

WimbleDON - The Don! The King of Slams!

With the Men in Blue playing against cricketing giants Bangladesh and Ireland, and with curtains to the European Club football season, I'm waiting for the summer ritual, or rather the summer specatcle - the Wimbledon. Wimbledon is modern, yet it makes the veiwers nostalgic about the tennis legends. Players who were not less than any artists and who could open up any impossible angle with their artistry. Craftsmen, who with the faintest movement of their racquet could bring all the beauty in the world to this grass court. Connors and Borg in the seventies, Becker in the eighties, Agassi and Sampras in the nineties, players who made spectators believe this show is what they live for.

Wimbledon is the dream of every tennis player, except maybe Federer, who maybe still dreaming about lifting the French Open someday. The Swiss master is the reason why I watch tennis, a refreshing exception to the boring, hardworking, macho baseliners. He reminds us there is still beauty in tennis and that serve-and-volley is not extinct. But even the Swiss ace was intimidated by the occasion and couldn't serve on his first visit ot the All England Club. And its unlikely someone other than him winning the 2007 edition of the Wimbledon, unless the Nadals and the Hewitts come out with something extraordinary. Lets wait and see!

Second Gear

2007-06-22T00:12:00.000+05:30

I'm still feeling my way around the blogging world. I learned two things, it is very large and when I click 'next blog' I get some random blog to read. I read that grundi wrote about some film and about how he celebrated father's day and what gift he got.. babybloger wrote about world politics, maybe he's not a baby afterall, or maybe he started blogging when he was a baby.. I also saw another page called bloogie whose colour selection made me blind for a few seconds! Then some time I sat looking at my blog page. Hey, this looks very small. All the others have many posts and lots of things are being discussed. I figured out that somebody would end up visiting my page through the next blog button and i have a feeling they may use the same button again, way too fast!

I also read somewhere that there are professional bloggers. I couldn't and still can't believe this. The thought that some people earned so much from this that they do it as a profession is puzzling, and appealing. I'm sad I still couldn't find a topic to write. Maybe I'll end up writing how difficult it is to write. How ironic!

First Gear of the Blogmachine

2007-06-21T13:11:00.001+05:30

Welcome to my blog!

The usual answer that everyone gives without any question being asked - Why I started the blog? is that they want to express what they feel about issues. Another answer is that they just want to find out about blogging and that they are just learning the basics.

And my answer is, I started a blog because one of my friends (see his blog here) said it is cool to start one. Then I thought maybe I'll try this thing. If I can read blogs, then why not write myself? The next big question is what to write. I have lots of things I can go on writing about, but my problem is there wont be any listeners after some time. So what to write still remains a problem, but I think I'll be able to figure out about it soon.

This is the longest I have ever typed in my life. Maybe I'll improve with time.
Another Possibility - This could be my last post, I might give up if I find something more interesting to do. Only time will tell!