Technicolor

What's my motto?

2008-09-20T16:03:00.000+05:30

"A circle is a series of connected lines each making a fixed specified angle with the previous line."

Have you ever wanted to do 26 different things at once? I have. Sadly inferring - its impossible to do it. You just CAN'T do 26 different things at once.

I do imagine sometimes how things will emerge out in 15 to 20 years from now! (Ok I know there are too many people who do that, so what is the big deal huh?) In the scenario that humans still do seem to be around and looking for a reason to live, it wouldn't be wrong to imagine that there will be an inherent requirement to do many things at once.

(People may argue on the contrary by asserting that futuristic developments will ease the life of human beings by giving away trivial tasks to monotone-loving technological gizmos. Simple counter-argument: rewind 10 years in the past. Our life has become more comfortable than that but has also become even more busy. "Oh! I have to read my RSS feeds. And darn! My phone has already reached its capacity of receiving tweets!")

"Multi-tasking" will be a "zillion-riyal" industry in the future. And humans will achieve that through a series of brain surgeries which their rich parents will convince them to have in their childhood. It will become imperetive for my grandson to answer a call on his PM while riding a horse or some "space-vehicle". Doing such a thing would obviously not be illegal.

Ok, diverting from "future-talk" - coming back to what I really wanted to discuss. A circle is a series of connected lines each making a fixed specified angle with the previous line. So are ideas - a series of connected thoughts... There is only one thing to infer and its pretty clear.

If I want my ideas to go ahead, I need to orient my thoughts as parallely as possible - or I will end up in a circle...

Time to ask The Question again:

How did I change the world today?

Practice School at DCPL, Kolkata

2008-06-28T12:57:00.001+05:30

A much much needed post!

Practice School has indeed managed to keep me busy for the past month. I am interning this summer at a Engineering Consultancy firm called Development Consultants Private Limited (DCPL) at its headquarters in Kolkata.

Excerpts from my Mid-Sem Report -

DCPL is an India based transnational Consulting Engineering Group offering the entire package of Project Engineering services starting from concept to construction supervision and commissioning for various core sectors and high-technology projects in India and abroad. An ISO-9001 accredited Indian Company, DCPL has diversified to 14 different areas of engineering starting with the flagship Power Engineering and including Cement, Paper, Chemical, Petro-chemical, Steel and Metals, Space, Defense, Mining and Mineral Processing, Software, Architectural, Infrastructure Development, Environment and Management Consultancy.

The IT services arm of the DC group, Data-Core Systems, Inc. is an international professional IT & Business service provider to Fortune 1000 companies and government organizations. Data-Core develops custom solutions that address and resolve requirements that are unique to each client. It focuses mainly on medium and small businesses.

IT Service offerings of Data-Core fall into the following categories:

Application Services – Development, Support, Maintenance
Data Warehousing & Business Intelligence
Quality Assurance & Software Testing – SQA Solutions (Testing) Practice
Development & Marketing Of Application Software Products

Data-Core is a Microsoft Certified Advantage Partner, a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer and has significant expertise in the design, development and deployment of mission-critical applications for major corporations in the United States. It provides Microsoft .NET based technology solutions for businesses through total project life cycle services.

It's been over a month working at the Data-Core office housed in a newly constructed centrally air-conditioned building in Salt Lake (10 mins away from home!). We (meaning 4 of the 10 interns at DCPL who are working for Data-Core) have been handed over a fresh project to work on. The job is to design a Student Information Management System and one can get enough information about it on Wikipedia so I wont explain.

More technically we are developing a web application based on the Prototyping development model using the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Platform. The application has already required us to work on the following development tools: Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft C# Object Oriented Programming, ASP.NET, XML (XSLT and XPath), XHTML with CSS, JavaScript and PL/SQL for Database Procedures. The project is nearing completion.

From a BITSian perspective (something that we kept in mind while designing every particular aspect of the software) we have basically managed to combine all internal BITS management software like Instruction Division (which manages the courses, subjects and sections in the University), ARCD (which manages all the academic and registration details of a student - and yes that includes making clash-free scheduling of Time Tables for students as well as faculty), SWD (which manages Student Dues, Activities, Search etc.), IntraBITS et al. into a single application managed centrally by one single database and a common and user friendly GUI that can be accessed by Administrators, Accountants, Faculty & Students.

Cheers to an experience worth having!

The new revolution!

2008-06-27T13:01:00.000+05:30

Overheard (at a future date) in a street corner not very far away...

OBC IITian 1: Arre dost!! We finally got our degrees! Saat saal lag gaye but we made it man! Now we will enter a good company and earn fat bucks!

OBC IITian 2: Don't be so happy man... Statistics have shown that very few reserved IITians get good jobs. I think we have to keep struggling...

OBC IITian 1: Not to worry dude! If we don't get a good placement we will apply for lectureship in IIT! Remember, the Government has reserved seats for the faculty as well! We will surely get in. As long as there is God above, he will always take care of us.

PS: Call for cartoonists is still on. (Refer here)

Future Perfect Tense?

2008-05-07T18:10:00.002+05:30

Those were the days!

Memristor

2008-05-05T22:27:00.004+05:30

The comprehensive exams are on at BITS Pilani and its a time to sweat for most people. But even amidst the heat of it all, Wikipedia has been a saviour.

Perhaps reading up on topics like Subnetwork and Psychokinesis couldn't have happened at a more appropriate time! Or perhaps nothing could be more hilarious than finding out that Ballmer has finally withdrawn from the deal!

Or perhaps the tingling is for real - and it couldn't have come at a better time (right when I was trying to find out stuff about molecular electronics!) HP Labs has come up with a working prototype for a Memristor!

Memristor (or memory resistor) was first proposed way back in a 1971 paper by Leon Chua. The memristor was a theoritical concept which made it the fourth basic circuit element - after resistor, inductor and capacitor. It is basically a type of resistance which is charge-dependent. It works at the molecular level, where the movement of molecules decides the value of the resistance exhibited by the memristor. The reason why its called "memory" resistor is that its resistor depends on the amount of charge that has flown through it in the past and the direction of that flow.

This extremely interesting property makes it an amazingly attractive candidate in the manufacture of non-volatile solid state memories for our computers! Imagine switching on your computer or any other electronic device instantly with minimal power and retrieving whatever was there the last time. The ability to change resistance on passage of charge (and retaining it) makes it capable of coming up with "brain-like" systems and can be used to remember and associate patterns in similar ways. The applications in neural networks and programmable logic are but obvious. This also points to the possibility of an analog computer in the near future - something that deals with not just 1's and 0's but values in-between as well.

The interesting part (that would make it an attractive alternative) would be that all such applications would now happen at the hardware level - in the sense that neural network applications (for example) currently rely on software programs that run on ordinary hardware. Memristors will help coming up with hardware which can do the same things without the need for software and thus make it extremely fast and scalable.

This is probably one of the greatest finds for the electronics industry in recent times. The discovery is extremely basic and the scientists have just begun exploring the possibilities...

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor
http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2008/apr-jun/memristor.html
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/scientists-prov.html

BITSAT this year

2008-04-19T14:54:00.001+05:30

Reservation for OBC candidates might turn out to be a boon for private colleges like BITS Pilani this time! Lets look at some statistics with respect to BITSAT (the BITS Admission Test):

Year	No. of applicants*	No. of examinees*	No. of seats
2006	65000	53000	1400
2007	85000	68000	1400
2008	114000	?	2000

*Approx

The reasoning is very simple. Many good candidates (I explicitly mean those with IITJEE AIR < 800 quality) will now make sure that they give BITSAT as well. With such a big chunk of seats going for donations (and new seats still a bit away), no sane standard 12th student is going to risk his future.

The number of seats being increased (a new campus at Hyderabad is starting operations from this year) will hardly have an effect on the intake quality. In fact, the rise in the number of applications from the last two years shows clearly that the competition will be much more tough. Some forum comments also hint at the fact that sample tests provided by BITS are much tougher than before - no better time to raise standards!

Way to go BITS Pilani!

(A good comparative study: http://bitsianwings.blogspot.com/2008/02/bitsat-selectivity-of-171-2008-2009.html)

UPDATE: Saawan points out the increase in number of IIT's here. 3 new IIT's at 'makeshift' sites with 120 seats each are starting operations from the following academic session. Point 1 - Total increase of seats for IIT's = 360, for BITS = 600. Point 2 - None of the AIR < 800 students I am talking about are going to look towards these new IIT's for admission. My point doesn't change.

We are reserved!

2008-04-11T10:54:00.002+05:30

Over heard in a street corner not very far away:

OBC 1: Hey! Did you read the newspaper today? The Supreme Court says that there will be 27 percent quota for "Other Backward Classes" in the IIT! Yes... I will finally be able to fulfil my dreams. I am going to live a happy life now. I will be able to go to IIT.

OBC 2: <Sobs> Don't tell me all this. I feel so bad. I can't even study for the IIT. I have no books. I have no money to pay for my tuition. And I am dumb. I sooo hope that IIT can take me... Only God can save me now.

OBC 1: Don't be so tensed... The "creamy layer" is not allowed for reservation. I am sure they will be able to find some place for you. Don't worry man! You will be an engineer one day!

PS: Looking for free-lance cartoonists in Pilani. (Preferably General category)

Bad Journalism

2008-03-30T01:55:00.001+05:30

Journalism is a sacred profession. Let the competition for "getting it first" not be overtaken by the competition for "getting it right".

Check out this link:
http://www.pr-inside.com/sensationalism-in-journalism-concerning-child-r509378.htm

Earth hour

2008-03-28T23:03:00.001+05:30

Its everywhere!

Earth Hour is an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening of 29 March at 8PM local time to promote electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions.

Let us all participate.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_hour
http://www.earthhour.org/
http://rotaractbits.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/earth-hour/

Web Designer's Ego!

2008-03-25T21:56:00.004+05:30

The website of the Electrical & Electronics and Instrumentation Group of BITS Pilani has finally got a wholesome revamp!

I think I need to do some thing about the BITS Homepage now... Any suggestions on what we could have? Or any pointers to potential inspirations?

Google Summer of Code 2008

2008-03-23T13:51:00.001+05:30

The GSoC 2008 is on! Student applications are being accepted from tomorrow. Too bad I don't think I can apply for it this time because of a compulsory training program (called Practice School) enforced by our college.

The project ideas look interesting this time. Check out a list of mentors here. For category-wise segregation check this out.

For people who don't know what I am talking about but are interested - visit the program FAQ here. For some interesting advice on how to apply & stuff - AdviceforStudents

Do check out the ideas from the Natural Interface Group, MINIX3, NCSA and so many others!

A talk, Movie & a talk

2008-02-08T11:49:00.001+05:30

6th Feb: I am leaving my bhawan for a movie with Rishabh when I get a call from a 12th standard kid studying in DPS, RKP at the moment. He claims to have got my number from a copy of my resume and wants to ask me a question.

Bhaiya. Is it true that if you have lower marks in your 12th boards as compared to 10th, then there could be problems in your placement during college?

Well, the discussion wasn't as bland as it sounds in the very beginning. I hope I was able to satisfy his inquisitiveness and make him realise the sequence of priorities he should have at this moment of his career.

By the time the call ended I was inside the BITS auditorium which had something very special scheduled in it today! We were here to witness the screening of "Shehenshah". What made it special and kind-of morose was that it was supposed to be the last movie screened by the Recreational Activities Forum (RAF). Reason? Losses and more losses - due to extremely low membership. Rishabh, Bhat, Keeki & me had a wonderful time watching the movie - complete with occasional whistles and hooting and desperately eyeing the D's of Meenakshi Sheshadri! An experience we might not be able to experience again in Pilani - certainly not by watching movies alone in our rooms on our computers.

After an all too enjoyable movie-watching experience, Keeki and me spent some time discussing some really interesting stuff! We talked about patterns in society, paradoxes in prediction models, human social behaviour, his courses of Philosophy and Psychology, Darwin & Socrates, Hitler and Vita Peracta... It was too much fun!

It really makes me wonder sometimes the different levels the mind can work at...

Random stuff

2008-02-05T23:01:00.000+05:30

Interesting news pouring out from all corners.

Google has finally stepped in and broken silence in the Microhoo! case. There are talks of partnership and stuff! Heated scene out there: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/technology/04yahoo.html

Entrepreneurship week 2008 is being hosted under the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) in some 270 member colleges across the country. BITS Pilani which was responsible in co-founding the NEN in 2002 (along with Indian Institue of Technology-Bombay, Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, SP Jain and IBAB) is effectively achieving the goals of the E-week. I got this Hindu article of the situation at MJCET: http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/05/stories/2008020558030200.htm

Ranidhera, a small village in Chhattisgarh is perhaps the first to have a Jatropha based 24-hr power supply. The station in Kabir Dham district has a capacity of 17.5 KW. The future looks bright! http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1129987.cms

Users of WritersCafe are in for a bad surprise! Regular maintenance caused a certain Charles to delete the database of all articles that was stored on their servers! The only consolation is that all friend lists are intact. This is really turning some people mad! And whatever happened to data recovery technologies?? Are people at WritersCafe technological retards? Check out their sorry letter: http://www.writerscafe.org/blog/#8

"Engineers for Social Impact"!

2008-02-05T22:38:00.000+05:30

There is a golden opportunity waiting for wannabe social entrepreneurs. Especially if you belong to one of these colleges:

Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani (BITS-Pilani)

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B)

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D)

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K)

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp)

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M)

National Institute of Technology - Surathkal (NITK-S)

National Institute of Technology, Trichy (NIT-T)

National Institute of Technology, Warangal (NIT-W)

Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT)

E4SI is a fellowship program - the brainchild of a few students from various colleges. The program is going to select 5 Fellows to work as interns at places like iDiscoveri, Intellecap, SELCO India, Ujjivan, Vaatsalya.

Last date for applications is 2nd March. BITS Pilani, lets rock!

Check out the details at their site: http://www.e4si.org/home

UPDATE: Nitin has clarified that the competition is open to both the Pilani and the Goa campus of BITS Pilani.

You know what you think you know!

2008-02-05T16:13:00.001+05:30

Yes! If you think you know something, you know it! And this another one of many things I learned recently.

Consider a scenario:

You are bored. You check your mails and get an advertisement regarding a workshop and a request for volunteers. Lets call the workshop - the "Quantum Cryptography Workshop!" - sounds funky!

You think you have played around with it before and maybe you can help them out. You end up attending a meeting where some set of people want to discuss of how to go about conducting a "workshop".

Words. They certainly make a huge difference don't they! The way you articulate your thoughts decides the way your thoughts are going to be perceived. Going back to the scenario...

"Good evening people! Guys, we have assembled today to try and work out details of how to conduct a workshop on a very upcoming and exciting field called Quantum Cryptography. In this journey that we are going to take we will come to know about deep mysteries rooted in nature and discover concepts that have helped shape a security form that is truly and absolutely unbreakable. Even at this time, our campus has a student who recently got a paper published on this field and did an internship in a Switzerland college! The field is really exciting and..."

Blah! Total blah! Especially if it turns out that the person who went to Switzerland had a paper that had no new research to it and you were the person responsible to simulate the proposed algorithm on the computer.

Yes, words. Use them any which way you want! They are your slaves. They form sentences just in the way you use them. 'Hype' is the language to use!!

Customer Relations

2008-02-02T11:50:00.000+05:30

I learned a few things today.

One of the more important things I learned today is that the "customer is NOT always right!" and if the seller is the nephew of the shop's owner, then more so! The nephew is an "unpaid servant" (if so he thinks) and thus has all the right to carry out the business of the shop in whichever manner he so desires.

I had my dinner in a well-reputed regional association's "grub" today. (Grub refers to a meal - generally dinner - organized by some regional association in my institute, containing delicacies from the concerned region!)

Consider this taking place in a grub:

A guy supposed to be "serving" in the "grub" after repeated rants delivers a chapaati on my friends plate. The chapaati is half-burnt! When asked what is this, an on-the-face reply is all the response that is elicited from him -

Arre! Khaa le! Ab yahi mil raha hai. Isi ko kha le!

Roughly translated: "This is what I am getting from there. You got to eat this!"

Might sound like a useless incident - but helps us realize one very important thing. People work on the basis of a profit-loss equation. If the scales are not in our favour, we don't work!

Simple.

Goenka Vidya Mandir, Pilani

2008-01-24T20:24:00.001+05:30

I had a brilliant experience today! I visited the 25th Annual Function of the Goenka Vidya Mandir - a not-so-prominent school near the BITS Pilani campus.

It was so much fun seeing the little kids perform in front of a modest crowd. The chief guest - Prof. Maheshwari (VC of BITS Pilani) never let down an opportunity to stop clapping! I wish I could share some pictures here, but I don't have any.

Incidentally, the school also houses the first BPO of Pilani called simply - "Pilani BPO Pvt. Ltd.!"

You can find more about this BPO - a BITSian startup - here.

The Secret History of Silicon Valley!

2008-01-23T11:54:00.001+05:30

(In case the video doesn't seem to work - visit this link)

This is a Google Tech Talk (December, 18 2007) delivered by Steve Blank - founder and executive of a number of high tech companies in Silicon Valley! He teaches entrepreneurship at U.C. Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Columbia University and Stanford's Graduate School of Engineering.

In this not-a-very-well-known lecture, Blank spots on how World War II set the stage for the creation and explosive growth of Silicon Valley, and the role of Frederick Terman and Stanford in working with government agencies (including the CIA and the National Security Agency) to set up companies in this area that sparked the creation of hundreds of other enterprises.

Must see!

Varanasi - Day Three

2008-01-02T15:08:00.000+05:30

Today I met some of my dad's batch mates! There were around 15 of them mostly from the chemical engineering department (my dad's dept.) More than half of them are based abroad now and could not come for the reunion due to various reasons. They were all dispersed over different sectors - someone is carrying out a perfumery business, someone has a guest column in Rediff (Mr. Yogesh Upadhyaya - he is based in New Jersey at the moment), someone heads the Kaya Skin Clinic, someone some other factory in some other location of India. It was nice meeting all of them!

We also roamed about in the university campus today. Must say - one hell of a huge campus. This being a complete university (it has all possible schools - medicine, performing arts, engineering - name it and you have it). Established by Madan Mohan Malviya the sprawling campus has a lush infrastructure - separate buildings for each and every thing! We toured parts of the chemical engineering facility. The old boys remembered the old days - the classes, the passages!

In the later part of the day we had dinner with some old time professors of the institute and the director of ITBHU (S.N. Upadhyay). It was a nice get-together. The Director interacted with a lot of us - he even tried to lure me into the campus! There was a constructive debate which followed - alumni discussing how they could best help the institute to regain its former glory. They remarked that even though the infrastructure had been maintained there was hardly much enhancement or new development. The quality of staff also seemed to be degrading. The Director blamed the skewed funding that BHU received these days and then they discussed the row over conversion of ITBHU into an IIT.

Irrespective of all the arguments I felt that a positive action is possible only if funding could be channelised properly - if a cooperation could be reached between BHU officials and the government regarding control distribution. These are however much deep-rooted matters and involve a lot of middlemen who have to think about themselves and their wellness on top of the wellness of the university.

All said and done, Banaras was a nice experience - saw a lot of places, met a lot of people!

(Aside: WiFi 'is not so good' in this place! I am posting these from home from previously made drafts)

Varanasi - Day Two

2008-01-01T14:38:00.000+05:30

A happy new year to all!

I started my new year with a string of visits to some of the eccentric places in and near Varanasi.

Sankatmochan Mandir - Yup! You have to pay a visit to every deity in this holy city. It was a Tuesday and the beginning of a whole new year - perfect day to visit Lord Hanuman's coveted shrine. We obviously didn't know that there would be thousands who would be thinking just like us! There was no space to even move in this crowd! Oh my! One hell of an experience! (We overheard someone saying - "I have been coming here for the past 25 years. I have never seen such a crowd before!)

Bharat Mata Mandir - After a rough but adventurous visit to the Hanuman temple we reached the Bharat Mata Mandir - probably a one of its kind in the entire world! And that is not because of its external grandeur or any thing of that sort - it is the deity that is worshipped here: A massive sculpture depicting India (and adjoining countries) in realistic 3d! The sculpture is made of 11 square inch 'Makrana' marble tiles. It accurately depicts the geography - a perfect to the scale representation of entire India. Really a wonderful sight! The walls of the temple depict the evolution of the Indian language and the numeral system from the age of Mohen-jo-daro.

Sarnath - After a wonderful visit (and a very proper coverage on handycam) of Bharat Mata Mandir we visited the Sarnath city - the foundations of Buddhism. Sarnath was a surprise in more than one way - the city is a maze. It is a maze of people, vehicles, tourists and a handful of citizens whose lives are centered around the architectural wonders that had been discovered here. We saw the Maha Bodhi Temple, the magnificent Sarnath stupa (only two stupa's are still intact currently, the other one being in Sanchi), the tree under which Siddhartha became Buddha and some Thailand temples. We also saw the actual Ashok Stumb (the column pillar with 4 lions on a chakra which is depicted in so many places connected with the Indian government.

The day thus went away in exploring religion - be it Hanuman bhakti, Desh bhakti or Buddhism!

Varanasi - Day One

2007-12-31T22:20:00.000+05:30

I am on a trip to Varanasi at the moment! I am visiting the Banaras Hindu University campus along with my entire family. We are here for the 30th reunion of the 1977 batch of ITBHU of which my father is a part!

After a two-hour delayed Amritsar mail, we reached Varanasi at 11 today. We booked a car, drove into the BHU campus, left our luggage in rooms 6 & 7 of the "Gandhi Technology Alumni Centre" and went to the Vishwanath mandir (The security at this temple is pretty commendable - I was frisked at least six different times by different armed policemen before I could come near the shrine. Must be one hell of a holy grail for human bombs!). After 6 hours of a really wonderful experience - which included a boat trip of a number of ghats, a snan (bath) at the ghat, a complete darshan of the temple and an overview of this pretty crowded city - I am back to catch up with some much needed rest!

I am writing this at the Guest House in BHU and will try to post it on the web through the WiFi network over here!

Street Walk

2007-12-26T02:07:00.001+05:30

That was fun!

Having written a post on Kolkata, now was the time to get on the streets and catch a few glimpses of this wonderful city.

Thanks Rwito for planning out the wonderful city tour! (coupled with tram-travel, snoop photography, daab & momos!)

Kolkata

2007-12-22T22:22:00.001+05:30

I am back home for a 3 week vacation from what was a pretty strenuous semester in BITS Pilani.

My journey back home was not without some interesting events! After a quick decision to leave campus at 6 in the morning, I packed my bag(s) and brushed my teeth! I went out searching for my cycle (in vain), had a small discussion with the chowki and made some other last minute arrangements.. hopped on to the Indigo at 6:15 along with Rishabh and faced a dark, foggy day ahead! Completed a 220 km journey marked with the chai treat by the driver and the "car-spotting" on Delhi roads - "Hey look at that BMW! That's a Chrysler right there!" I also came up with a plot for a sci-fi during this trip! Will discuss it next time.

Stayed at Delhi for 2 days at my uncle's place. Bragged about the LAN at Pilani and indulged in some movie piracy. Wrote a lot of essays on a night out. Printed them out at 10 am on the 15th and slipped them under a door at 12. The door had no sign-board and the only indication that it was the door to the office of the "Institute of International Education" was a maintenance sticker pasted on a generator kept near the door that said the same. Reached airport at 4 and waited for a Deccan flight. The renewed experience of Deccan flights is something to be elaborated on. You might enjoy Rishabh's take on them - its almost accurate! I will just quote one hilarious moment - "Sir, the flight is not getting permission to land at the airport and hence it is getting delayed. There is a lot of air traffic. We will be 25 mins late. But we are unable to correct these timings on the monitors because of a technical difficulty." Wonderful words they use - technical difficulty!

After a quicker than expected flight I was in Kolkata! Yes! Home! Some things never change. Home, family, parents. They will always remain the same. Some things never change. Kolkata road traffic, roads, civic sense, work behaviour. I wish they change.

And so I was introduced yet again - to the power of the hand! A hand that can be flashed on pedestrian crossings and cause buses to stop. A hand that can be flashed in front of cars waiting at a green signal, to cross the road. A hand that means - an absolute stop - and that's about it.

And I was re-introduced to concept of government banks. "Customer satisfaction is not a must." Making one demand draft for fees submission at Pilani took me more than 3 long hours. The requirement of drafts payable only at UCO and SBBJ (State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur) forces you to enter some shady banks of your locality. SBI branches do not make SBBJ drafts (at least not the once I went to). UCO was the only option. Sporting a hefty amount in cash, I barged into a shady UCO bank in the locality. It said it cannot make cash demand drafts because it has "incompetent software" which cannot accept cash and directed me to its "bigger branch" some three blocks away. Reaching there my levels of satisfaction increased on seeing an A/C office. The cash was quickly deposited and I was asked to wait for the draft. Time 1:00 PM. As I saw the employees working and simultaneously munching on some bits of food and customers trickling in and out I wondered what was happening to my demand draft. After repeated requests, the demand draft paper was brought it from somewhere and two drafts were made. They were not mine. Time 2:30 PM. "Sir, our system is down. We have some technical difficulty. Can you please take a round and come back later?"

Kolkata is a wonderful city. I was born and brought up here. It is the city of Joy! We are carefree human beings that live here - we do not care what the world thinks about us!

New Comments form

2007-12-08T16:03:00.001+05:30

I have made changes to my template to display and let users add comments to the posts on the same page. It uses AJAX and looks cool! Do let me know if it works fine for you.

Base code credit: TechnoJuice

Crazy Product Idea #1

2007-12-05T19:40:00.001+05:30

I was studying in my room, when I hit upon this wonderful idea!

Noise cancellation windows!

So how would it work? Principle: Destructive interference of sound waves.

There will be a screen covering the window made of an array of sound frequency sensors. Some 10 cm behind this screen there will be another screen with an array of speakers. Based on the feed-forward response of the first screen the speakers will produce sound of opposite phase and result in destructive interference! Cottony silence!

Alas! I googled and found out someone already had that idea before...

On a brighter note I read about the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard today! Check it out. I wonder why people don't use it.