Chandresh Mehta's Blog

website to check the authenticity of Urban Legends

2006-12-03T16:19:00.000-05:00

http://www.snopes.com

Search the blogosphere

2006-03-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

Wanna know how many sites link to your blog??

here is the website:
http://www.technorati.com/search

OpenSource softwares for Windows OS

2006-02-03T14:22:00.000-05:00

http://osswin.sourceforge.net

My Chronicles of 2005

2006-01-09T16:53:00.002-05:00

The year 2005 proved to be one of the eventful ones for me in number of ways.

It is in this year I made up my mind to puruse PhD. I was pondering about this since past 3-4 years and at this point in time I am very contended with my decision.

Oops!! this is a chronicle... so lets start from the beginning.

Januray 2005: I was in New York City to welcome the year "2005." As I had expected/heard about NYC, I found it to be a very vibrant place where one can find people of all kinds of varieties. Given a choice, NYC is one of the places where I would truly love to spend the major part of my life. Among others the visit to Madame Tussauds museum was a memorable one. Although I dint find the very-famous "ball drop" event really exciting.

February 2005: It was the time to visit California. We (Clive, Suraj and myself) went there for a poster presentation of our first ever paper. The conference was called Medical Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) 13 and was in Long beach. Apart from a wonderful professional experience we enjoyed the weather and scenic beauties of southern California. We visited LA, San-Diego and drove through Anaheim, and Malibu. The drive on the PCH towards the San-Diego during the dusk hours is an unforgettable one. Also the short drive at Beverly Hills was full of fun. we also enjoyed the theme park - Universal Studios. I found southern California a wonderful place full of fun, enthusiasm and excitement.

March 2005: the month of march in SUNY-Buffalo brings with it the long-waited spring break. I, with my friends, visited Pittsburgh. The drive to the Pittsburgh was also a memorable one!! I guess it was march 12th or 13th. It snowed heavily while we were on the road and our car greeted the snow with its two 180 degrees skids. there were many other cars on the highway enjoying the snow skidding. well!! it was in this month I realized that I still haven't completed my master's and started putting lots of time in my thesis work. towards the end of march and in April I became really busy with my research work and thesis.

April 2005: this was the month when I gave a really serious thought to the PhD program and very quickly decided the colleges that I am applying to.

May 2005: The summer in buffalo had kind of started and it was time to go for after-dinner strolls and outdoor games. I played lawn tennis a lot over the summer of 2005. I hope I can continue playing it during forthcoming summers. Also during this month I was lucky to get a chance to go for a Yankee-Redsox game in Yankee's stadium at NYC. during my this visit (2nd) of NYC i explored the city a lot and went to lots of places within the city including central park, ground zero, statue of liberty etc.

June 2005: as expected the summer did increase my efficiency and I was able to put in lot of time towards my research project and thesis. the visits to couple of parks around the buffalo area during this period was also full of fun. particularly we visited Delaware Park in buffalo a lot during this period.

July 2005: it was time for the big trip. I visited India after a span of nearly two years. to mention a few keynote events: my elder sister Kavita gave birth to a charming baby boy on 25th July and we named him 'Dev.' also I faced the famous Mumbai rain of 26th July.

August 2005: well in this month I was back to Buffalo for my last semester at UB. Fall 2005 was a memorable semester for me. I was a tutor during this semester. due to my inclination towards teaching I truly enjoyed the 4 months of tutoring. while I am writing this I really miss my students.

September 2005: it was close to the beginning of fall and we couldn't miss a chance to visit the places around buffalo. we visited a park near buffalo and quite a number of other places in and around buffalo.

October 2005: it was time to start preparing for the "D-day" (Defense-day) which was scheduled on November 1.

November 2005: Done with the master's I was enjoying the short vacation before my PhD. again we roamed a lot in and around buffalo.

December 2005: Excitement in this month was due to my first ever paper presentation. The conference was called "Winter Simulation Conference 2005" and was held in the beautiful city of Orlando. it was again, a wonderful professional experience. unnecessary to mention, the traveling in Orlando was fun. by the time I was out of Florida I had already visited three oceans (Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic) of the world within a period of one year. i had never thought i could do this. also during this month I moved to Ann Arbor to pursue my PhD program. Well what could be better then to end this eventful year in Chicago!! again a wonderful city.. mecca of modern architecture.. truly awesome..

The photos of all this are uploaded here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/chandreshrmehta/my_photos

for 2006 I look forward to do some really quality research.. lets see what comes on the way.

I am back!!

2006-01-09T16:29:00.000-05:00

Its now nearly two months since I wrote anything on this blog. The primary reason for this is that I have been busy with number of things. One of the major change that took place in past two months is that I moved to midwest. I am in Ann Arbor now pursuing my PhD. since i have kinda settled in this new place I intend to jotter down number of things I have had on my mind.

Web Album Creator

2005-11-13T23:12:00.000-05:00

After a long search I guess I found a good web album creator: JAlbum

http://jalbum.net/

The best skin I liked in JAlbum is the BluPlusPlus. I look forward to create and publish albums using this tool.

We dont always see what we think we see

2005-11-10T10:04:00.000-05:00

http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html

Gigantic Index of online books available at UPENN

2005-11-07T14:54:00.000-05:00

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/subjects.html

Thanks to Amrita for sending this link.

Photo Sharing using Webshots

2005-09-10T16:20:00.000-05:00

I have an account with yahoo photos but somehow I didnot find it very appealing. So I thought of kinda switching to other domain. I have heard about webshots so decided to open an account on it. Here is the link to my account on webshots:

http://community.webshots.com/user/chandreshrmehta

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's address to the nation on the eve of 59th Independence Day

2005-08-14T22:04:00.000-05:00

Link:
ADDRESS TO THE NATION ON THE EVE OF THE 59TH INDEPENDENCE DAY

Wisdom from Socrates

2005-08-14T09:23:00.000-05:00

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?"

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test.

The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"Â (Sathyam?)

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?" (Priyam?)

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?" (Hitham?)

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

America's Top 10 Amusement Parks - MSN

2005-08-12T19:46:00.000-05:00

MSN has picked the nation's top 10 amusement parks:

Astroland Amusement Park - Brooklyn, N.Y.
Busch Gardens - Tampa Bay, Fla.
Cedar Point Amusement Park - Sandusky, Ohio
Disneyland - Anaheim, Calif.
Kennywood Park - West Mifflin, Pa.
Camp Snoopy at Mall of America - Bloomington, Minn.
Magic Kingdom - Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Paramount's Carowinds - Charlotte, N.C.
Santa Cruz Boardwalk - Santa Cruz, Calif.
Six Flags Astroworld - Houston, Texas

Finding off-campus housing made easy for UB students - Thanks to Alok K. Agarwal and his classmates

2005-08-11T17:47:00.000-05:00

Alok K. Agarwal and his classmates built a
website so that new and current international students
at UB could find off-campus housing and roommates,
as well as buy and sell household effects.

Here is the link to website:
http://www28.websamba.com/ubxchange/

2005-07-07T12:44:00.000-05:00

chandresh rocks ;)

slang dictionary

2005-07-06T15:33:00.000-05:00

here is the website for slang lingo:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/

Quasiturbine Engine

2005-06-28T08:19:00.000-05:00

from http://auto.howstuffworks.com/quasiturbine.html

An intense evaluation,by Saint-Hilaire team, of all engine concepts to note advantages, disadvantages and opportunities for improvement resulted in unique engine solution - Quasiturbine Engine.

Like rotary engines, the quasiturbine engine is based on a rotor-and-housing design. But instead of three blades, the quasiturbine rotor has four elements chained together, with combustion chambers located between each element and the walls of the housing.

Read more about it on HowStuffWorks.com

Trip to Goa - It is better off travelling by air

2005-06-28T07:27:00.000-05:00

I plan to make a trip to Goa during my visit to India (from July 13 to august 13). I will be going with my family and matt.

we were planning about the mode of travel and the very first, and very obvious when it comes to travelling from bombay to goa, we could thought about was Konkan Railway (KR). i have heard a lot about KR. the scenic places that one can see on the way are marvellous and memorable. also i thought it is lot cheaper travelling by train. the only downfall of travelling by train, that i could see, was 12 hours of journey. i know 12 hours is not a long journey for train travel in india. but hey wait a minute! we are going for only 3 days and is it worth spending nearly 2 days in travelling. naaaa.. doesn't sound good.

so whats the other option. Air travel?!! hey but isn't it costly? yeah, may be but then we could go by train and come back by plane. hmmm.. sounds good.

ok so i started looking for flights to goa. and then i came across this new airlines.. 'SpiceJet' (name sounds interesting! Jet with spice? good catch for indian janta). and while i was checking the fare, i was happily surprised. only Rs. 1449/-. you kidding. no i am serious. wow!! thats too good.

and we finalized on travelling by plane both ways. agreed we will miss all the adorable scenes of konkan railway. but hey its rainny season too and cant say train could be late. it is definitely wise to travel by plane.

Good Friend and Mentor Leaving...

2005-05-31T19:46:00.000-05:00

Dirk, one of mine very good friend and mentor is leaving buffalo today.
He got a job at miami in Cordis Corp (http://www.cordis.com).

It was fun and honor in working on a project (NIMA) with him. He is not only very good at his work but is also a very nice human-being. I learnt a lot from him.

I will always hold fond memories about him in my heart.

I Wish him all the best for all his future endeavors

Google Rocks

2005-05-22T14:27:00.000-05:00

Google has something more to offer.
check out the news:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/19/technology/google.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

My Personal Webpage

2004-12-20T14:48:00.000-05:00

http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/~crmehta