The Plot Thickens!

BYE....

2007-06-23T07:55:00.000+05:30

Bye

Kickassso, the happy go lucky college goer has died, and For me, what i have been reduced to now ,a pathetic cubicle dweller, to continue posting here in this blog would be an insult to all the happy memories I've had in college. Something which I'll never be able to do.I'm freezing this blog in time, as something which I'll always cherish...

I might take up blogging sometime else, another place, another time , another Id. Till then, my time here on this blog has come to an end.......

Going it alone

2006-09-02T07:49:00.000+05:30

This is the first time I'm going out to supervise a New PC assembly/Install.So far , It had been biosbhai who did the supervision while i just watched.Now the time has come to take over the reins, for the master is no longer present.This PC is not without his influence though.Its proccy/mobo is his choice, not to mention a few other details.but still his spirit, and not to mention his phone number is there with me to guide me through the process!.
Config:
AMD 64 3500+
ASUS A8N-VM
Corsair 1GB RAM
160GB HDD
DVD Writer
MS comfort mouse optical 3000
Viewsonic 17 inch flat CRT (a la mine )
APC 500VA UPS

and now the piece de reistance
an Altec Lansing MX 5021!!!!!!!!!

I hope this turns out to be yet another kickasss PC!

And then there was none

2006-08-23T13:23:00.000+05:30

My S8 results Have guaranteed that I'll be the last one to leave , if at all I do , leave trivandrum.I have been reduced to sitting at home and watching my friends and their careers take off while all I can do is retrospect, and retrospect I will post is written as a sort of tribute to all the friendships I've had in college, and some of the people I've met recently see who's gone and who's left...

1) ~~Ashok C~~
2) ~~Shyam SK~~
3) ~~Aravind V~~
4) ~~Arun A~~
5) ~~Govind Dutt~~
6) ~~Parvathi S~~
7) ~~Anjana MM~~
8) Divya H

1) Ashok.... The dude I've known the longest.......
We've known each other since LKG! The proverbial start was an eraser which ashok apparently lost, and I found. He vowed to be my friend in return, and so far hasn't gone back on it! There have been rifts and ,mending,but this one dude is the one who has been with me through thick and thin altruist to the core,we share a lot of interests, not to mention values :)
2) Shyam , Ze bunny man.. I met him as Ashok's classmate, and as govind's Ex classmate.I dont exactly recall when or where exactly I met him... but now it seems as if we've been friends forever.The weirdest thing about shyam was that he was absolutely normal! All my friends , including me have some weird personality quirks! stragely though.. .shyam seems to have none (hey wait... mebbe he does a good job hiding it :P)Otherwise the dude's the proverbial nice guy, and one of them dedicated bikers(despite being stuck with a unicorn that tops out at 100)(EDIT: I Just heard from the man... He's putting in a K&N air filter... that should make his ride good for another 50Km/hr!)
3)Arun and Aravind THE DUDE! we first met in s3, during the organizing of the first QUEST we were involved in... then and there we knew that we were gonna get on famously. besides the organizing bit, he knew his way around circuits, and THAT was a big plus. we sorta drifted apart during s4, but were back in full form in s5, during the industrial visit... ESPECIALLY the industrial visit. many projects and enterprises later ... which brings into view ARUN ... or Ayypan as we all know him ( aravind also has his own nick .. which i shall refrain from mentioning HINT : It has the same spelling as mallu for Elder brother, but diff pronounciation )We three have been through two projects, and one event together. We've done it all on our own, and we couldnt have done it without each other.Our exploits together would go on and on... Including eating contests,sub 30 minute lab exams , teachers going ^:)^, late night soldering sessions, Chat-sleep- solder cycles at our project development HQ,All those burn hands and feet, blown up soldering irons , bown up fuses, victory dances at midnight,brainstorming sessions for organizing quest, content making , planning , design all done sitting in gandhi park in east fort(god I'm gonna miss those ) those times we've cut class to do more productive things , the time we showed Malena at our College film club to rave reviews, our futile pursuits at starting an organization, RFID, the Kinematic intuitive control Interface, the speakers and amp we made together, the demo we had at CET, and the peeople going OOOH!,All that food we ate in the name of R&D.. all the people we met to market quest, and you two going off to b'lore ,and loads more ....

the more i think of these , the more i wish i could have been with you guys right now so no more :(
5) Govind Dutt. We first met during 8th standard, where we (along with ashok)first formed a three letter organization which we had a lot of fun running , and officially sponsoring many fights, and all the controversy we raked up, all the friends and enemies we made... he left sarvodaya only to later meet at SCT.I still remain indebted to him for talking me into cancelling my CET AE higher option.. I might have not had all these back papers if i'd gone to CET, but i wouldnt have been writing this blog then would I? btw, for those who dont know him , he be a hardware GOD(he has configured the systems of most people i know ) as well as being an L337 gamer!he has his limitations , ,As a human being, I've been his agony, er Uncle? on several occasions , but the dude is, as he said about me in his autograph, a good man :)
6)Parvathi
How we came to meet each other is a very funny ( but at the same time , very embarassing) story. suffice to say it involves time classes and some very bored back benchers and my deficient powers of observation. I found out about her through her (sadly now defunct) blog. She is rather elusive ... in real life, online , and elsewhere . I'm all the worse off for it :(. I still remember the time i coaxed her into a partial return to blogging , and got a huge treat as a result :D. it took three guys eating full time to finish it off !
7) Anjana
we met somewhere during third semester, introduced to each other by a classmate "who shall not be named " ;) . I immediately sorta took a linking , mostly because she shared my taste in music, and more importantly, cos her dad worked for panasonic:D. It's something every audio geek aspires too! She's a cynomaniac ( go find out what it means:D).The defining thing is that she seems to be among the very few level headed gals in class.I've had my share of problems , especially with the two TCS blog posts which she made me take down(Grrr!). But i guess things work out for the best , she's left for tcs training ,which thankfully is in TVM

8)Divya
I met her through her blog as well.. and got along nicely .. but the real test came when me and aravind were trying to pull off quest , and she accepted graciously to come and sit as guinea pigs for the seminars , and not only that participate too!.She's very much a night prowler, and since my nightbird days are behind me , our busy schedules dont intersect as much! but nowadays , liberated with a license to text, she is the only one who is within arms reach of my 300 character ramblings!
Though i very much appreciate the fact that she's helped me make it through this time
I could go on and on about her, but i very much need to finish this before she, too goes. So there. Thats it! :)

Honourable mentions
Of course , this would be incomplete if i forget to mention people like magneta, balaji, santosh, teenu, johnson, dinup, and a load of others, but the more i think about you guys , the sadder i become... so the reminiscing has to stop... so there

Further more Tags

2006-08-14T11:00:00.000+05:30

1. Most desired celebrity

Aint that a Beauty! *DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!*
A Media Center PC with a huge Flat monitor... GAWD I wish I had one of those :(

What is that you say? katrina kaif? well, um !!!!!!!!!!!

2. Want to do this some day
Own a '59 Caddy... Its not just Old music that I love.. I've been in love with this car since the 8th standard !

3. Want to visit this place

I got this pic from This photo blog.. check out the dude's other pics

This is the Eglise De Sacre Coeur De Jesus:Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, this church is noted for its gothic architecture and stained glass panels which depict the entire life of Jesus Christ.

I went there once during a trip we organized , and still havent forgotten the place. Pondicherry was heavenly, A slice of authentic europe in our own country.I dont have a lot of ambitions , to rise too far or to travel too wide.Its the whats nearest to me that i really like :)

4. Random Favorite

A talented songwriter, Gibson was nicknamed "the sad poet" because he frequently wrote songs that told of loneliness and lost love. He wrote and sang "I Can't Stop Loving You", a song that would be recorded by more than 700 artists
He and producer Chet Atkins decided to abandon the traditional steel guitar and fiddle and use a new sound featuring only guitars, a piano, a drummer, upright bass, and background singers. It became one of the first examples of what would be called the Nashville Sound

5. I was tagged by Geo.
Comment:Post the picture of the place where you were tagged, and if you picked up the tag yourself then the picture of the place you picked it from. Click on the image to see the enlarged view.

More Tags

2006-08-12T08:25:00.000+05:30

Got this from Rockus and Divs Seemed kinda interesting, so here goes!
1. Were you named after anyone?
Yeah. My Dad and grandpa!Augustine + Nestor = guess what :P
2. Do you wish on stars?
Sometimes... especially if that star is a hot bollywood chick!
3. When did you last cry?
Millenium man... the end was too damn sad!
4. Do you like your handwriting?
NO, not one bit, i believe its the sole cause of me VERY bad marks :(
5. What is your favourite meat?
Er, paneer? i really dont like any kinda meat. I was at a poultry farm the other day, and after seeing what i saw, i doubt if anyone would eat chicken!
6. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?
Er, those two DVD coasters which came out as a result of duttan trying to multitask while DVD writing... I need more RAM!
7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?
I seriously doubt it .I hate people who are like me in every way, unless its a she ;)
8. Are you a daredevil ?
LOL no... the most daring thing I've ever done was travel on footboard
9. How do you release anger?
sit calmly, and blast the living daylights out of my neighbours!
10. Where is your second home?
none...
11. Do you trust others easily?
I don't trust anybody...most of the time!
12. What was your favourite toy(s) as a child?
Anything electrical/mechanical!, not to play with them, but to take them apart! thankfully, by the time i was older , i had learned to put them back together as well!:D
13. What class in school/college do you think is totally useless?
social studies(history+ geography) cant think of one way in which it has helped me , except maybe increase my hate of mugging
14. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
Nah! the ones who deserve my sarcasm wouldnt get it!
15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit?
Erm no! those kind of social events ,I avoid
16. What do you look for in a girl?
Read all about it here ! here .
17. Would you bungee jump?
HELL NO! I dont have any brown pants!
18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
No...they're exactly the right amount of loose :P
19.What is your favourite ice cream?
Mint + dark chocolate i once ate at baskin robbins. Otherwise, butterscotch is quite fine !
20. What are your favourite colours?
Greay, blue and black, and red sometimes
21. What are your least favourite things?
Loads....mass produced films fim music, serials , pretty much being conventional
22. How many people do you have a crush on right now?
None TY! I've learnt the hard way that there is no good end to a crush, so keep off them like the plague
23. Who do you miss most right now?
Frantic and Poison... I miss them like hell :(
24. What are you listening to right now?
Maria Elena
I love this song...I've got this song in several versions , sung by different people in different languages!

Tuyo es mi corazón
Oh sol de mi querer
Mujer de mi ilusión
Mi amor te con sagré
Mi vida da la embellece una esperanza azul
Mi vida tiene un cielo que le diste tu
Tuyo es mi corazón
Oh sol de mi querer
Tuyo es todo mi ser tuyo es mujer
Yo todo el corazón te lo entregué
Eres mi fé, eres mi Dios, eres mi amor

and in English

Maria Elena
You're the answer to a prayer
Maria Elena
Can't you see how much I care?
To me your voice is like the echo of a sigh
And when you're near my heart can't speak above a sigh

Maria Elena
Say that we will never part
Maria Elena
Take me to your heart
A love like mine is great enough for two
To share this love is really all I ask of you

25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
definetly NOT red... its the one that gets finished the first:D
26. What is the weather like right now?
Slightly rainy, but not damp... I like it like this, good to curl up with my bed with a novel in hand
27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
T3H_FR4GG3R
28. The "first" thing you notice about the opposite sex?
What i feel like when i notice someone,Call it a gut instinct
29. Do you like the person who sent you this?
I got this from two pple , and ive seen Rockus once, and we didnt even know each other properly then! Divs, well, we've known each other for sligtly longer ,yups good friend she is :)
30. How are you today?
My hands are achy from grabbing an ancient M80... two wheeler driving lessons !
31. Favourite non alcoholic drink?
Hmm... LIME SODA! I literally live on that stuff! now that colas are banned, lets see all those cola drinkers turn healthy!
32. Favourite alcoholic drink?
Wine , home made
33. Natural hair colour?
Black.
34. Eye colour?
Dark brown
35. Wear contacts?
No,but i wiah i could have worn glasses :(
36. Siblings?
Yup.. One
37. Favourite month?
August... loads of people i know born that month ;)
38.Favourite food?
paneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!
39. Favourite day of the year?
OL april 1
40. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?
Wasnt... will be from now on!
41. Scary movies or happy endings?
Happy endings!
42. Summer or winter?
Winter... I love the cold , and there's always christmas
43. Holi or Diwali?
Diwali.. Holi is too messy for my taste, sorta like an indian mosh pit
44. Do you like your name?
Love it , except when people decide to spell it their way
45. What book/magazine are you reading?
Was reading a bunch of medical thrillers by robin cook... quite disgusted by now, so plan to switch to my vast and comprehensive star trek ebook collection, and now that i can read novels on my cellphone ....BWAHAHAHAHA!
46. What's on your mouse pad?
A ferrari F550.but right now, an old diary cover is sitting on top of it... way too smooth!
47. What did you watch on TV last night?
Nothing... watched two movies in the theatre back to back... Pirates of the caribbean: Dead man's chest, and then the hindi Kabhie al vida na kehna, seriously regret doing the latter now !
48. Favourite Smell ?
someone else's burning circuit !
49. Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone?
Never... it was a HUGE relief ;)
50. Most tiresome thing you’ve ever experienced/done?
One kung fu session with poison... was immobilized for days on end

I'd like to thank rockus for his post, which i copied verbatim , with HTML formatting and edited to make this post! :P

Goodbye kiddo

2006-08-08T10:46:00.000+05:30

When I went to sleep yesterday, there was a bratty kid sitting at the PC. When i woke up, the kid wasnt there anymore.I remember you 18 years ago, this day, a small tyke all in white who did nothing but nap all the time .Welcome to the real world...I'll miss having you around kiddo! Youre all grown up now :(

Job hunts and FPS

2006-07-30T15:18:00.000+05:30

Going through a job interview is not unlike a FPS game, with various levels, the first being a target practice round to weed out those who cant hit the broad side of a fence, then a death match between several participants, and then a final boss fight. The first and the last, the target practice are quite okay with me, and there is a clear cut differentiation between who is the one who holds the prize , and those who aspire for it. Score enough hits on target, make it through round 1. Hold your own against the boss, you're through. Its the part in between, the group discussion in which the link between contestants becomes blurred......

In a GD, you are pitted against your own companions, and its a battle for survival. Not unlike a death match or a gladiator fight.As proximo says in Gladiator,

Listen to me. Learn from me. I was not the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.

You fight for Caesar(or in this case , the facilitator). He watches from a different plane, and you fight for all that you are worth that you may win the Caesars favor. In the end, you are done ,and a few remain, who look up to get the thumbs up or down which will decide the rest of their lives from then on. What is even worse is the fact that the fate of your mates is your own doing. It is your own performance and the fact that you are selected that is the very direct cause of their rejection. Most go home disheartened, and with one less path to take. The burden on oneself is also not light ,as we have to bear the fact that their loss of livelihood is because of us. But somehow , we have been chosen for the greater good, and if it weren't them going home, it would have been us. We try to soften the blow by getting to know each other ahead of the GD, and if possible, trying to get a gentleman's agreement to be cordial. If not, then cartelize, and bring down the rest. In B School Interviews, I've always been a bit shaky, for most of your peers are as experience, and skilled, if not better than you are.

Contrast that to the one i just had recently. There were eight grouped together for the discussion. I was trying to keep a low profile after i had just been established as a minor celebrity after all my college mates came to my room, and then the officials of the HR agency facilitating the interview took their time to talk to me(they were shocked at seeing my name , and were of the view that i should definitely have tried CAT for one more time. Unfortunately, job security is something that i give paramount importance, and so I'm here. As the batch in front of us gets read to go in, their predecessors step out , and what's the topic?...”black or white”gasps go up around immediately and suddenly one of the dudes suddenly starts to reel off strategies for taking on such a topic. The fact that most of them dont hold water are the least of it. Either way, he's suddenly the cynosure of all eyes, and everyone turns to his expert guidance. I just watch silently. Was he placed earlier? I ask.. yes he says , but couldn't join because his joining date clashed with his exams. Poor dude , suddenly my prejudice goes down a few notches.

Either way we're ushered in, and the facilitator flips through the answer sheets, and one of them catches his eye...and its mine! He heads over to me and asks about my name and origins , I of course , have no idea , and all i can offer are theories.(honestly, I don't know if I've got Anglo Indian roots!)and the facilitator says he's bushed for ideas, and asks us to suggest one. Of course , our earlier hero has one at hand. I contemplate coming up with another one , and taking him down..no, its to crude.. were civilized people aren't we? I ask him why he chose the topic, to give a semblance of a discussion regarding the topic. He offers none. Either way, we're off, and soon me and this girl from our college , biotech (honestly, before she identified herself , i had no idea she was even in our college! The Biotechs are in an isolated section, and we don't mix all that often..) I give turns to the others whom i came across as good people , and made most of them speak. Of course , for some apparent reason, the guy who suggested the topic remains silent. Maybe he feels secure in the fact that he contributed the topic...I'm in the middle of explaining why it makes sense for govt to raise pension age when the facilitator cuts me off. Thats all folks , for today at least..We go outside, and wait for Caesars favor. He seems to be in a good mood, he has chosen 4. It seems others were luckier and some less so, and in some cases , up to 7/8 were chosen, and in others only one or two. Thankfully, I've also made it.And i felt good about it.Not because i actively fought the temptation to take him down, but because i could help the others express themselves and get a chance . Sometimes, real victory doesn't come from winning ourselves...but from helping others to...

Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how but, what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered, as men.

I cant believe this!!!!!!

2006-07-24T11:42:00.000+05:30

Abso-Friggin unbelievable

Your EQ is 167

50 or less: Thanks for answering honestly. Now get yourself a shrink, quick!
51-70: When it comes to understanding human emotions, you'd have better luck understanding Chinese.
71-90: You've got more emotional intelligence than the average frat boy. Barely.
91-110: You're average. It's easy to predict how you'll react to things. But anyone could have guessed that.
111-130: You usually have it going on emotionally, but roadblocks tend to land you on your butt.
131-150: You are remarkable when it comes to relating with others. Only the biggest losers get under your skin.
150+: Two possibilities - you've either out "Dr. Phil-ed" Dr. Phil... or you're a dirty liar.

What's Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)?

Another Music tag

2006-07-21T13:30:00.000+05:30

got tagged by rockus
You play your whole music collection with shuffle on, ask the question, leave a comment and go to next song.
unfortunately, I Just finished moving mymp3 collection to a spindle of DVD's with my spanking new DVD writer... So my faves folder will have to do.all I've got is that and my don gibson discography... Which runs into a few GB itself.so for right now, We'll not let Don overwhelm the rest of my music :)
1.How does the world see you?
Shaggy - Luv Me, Luv Me
Whoa! As if I'm going around asking for love:P
2.Will I have a happy life?
Daniel Bedingfield - If You're Not The One
“I don’t want to run away but I can’t take it, I don’t understand “
Am I unsure? I really dont know...
3.What do my friends think of me?
Eminem feat Nate Dogg - Shake That Ass For Me
Eh heh!
4.Do people secretly lust after me?
Connie Francis - Everybody's Somebody's Fool
is that a hidden message? No comment!!!!!!!!
5.How can I make myself happy?
Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around
seems like a recipe to get giddy!
6.What should I do with my life?
Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall
Nope... definitely don't want to become one of those!
7. Will I ever have children?
Celine Dion Beauty and the Beast
I hope the beauty is a gal and the beast is a boy.. sure wouldnt want it the other way round!
8.What is some good advice for me?
Usher ft Lil John & Ludacris- Yeah
Yeah? Yeah what?
9.How will I be remembered?
DJ Icey – Dreams
i hope in a lot of peoples!
10. What's my signature dancing song?
Sly Boogy-Thats my name
nice song... loved it in NFS UG2... must have played it a zillion times!.. but dance? Hmmm!
11.What's my current theme song?
Willie Nelson – Crazy
“Crazy, I'm crazy for feeling so lonely
I'm crazy, crazy for feeling so blue “
I do feel that way now, that most of my friends are gone!
12.What do others think is my current themesong?
For The Good Times

“Don't look so sad, I know it's over
But life goes on and this old world will keep on a-turnin'
Let's just be glad we had some time to spend together
There's no need to watch the bridges that we're burning”
13.What shall they play at my funeral?
Adam Sandler- Uses Of The Word Fuck
Eh heh!
14. What type of men/women do I like?
Duran Duran- Come Undone
OH YEAH!!!!!!!!

15. How's my love life?
Jim Reeves-Missing You
I do miss having a love life!!!!!!!!!
And to pass on the tags,
here be the victims!!!!
th3_d4r3d3vi1
Divs
Neo!

A Trip to the zoo

2006-07-12T09:13:00.000+05:30

The reptile house
Originally uploaded by kickassso.
A bunch of us went to the zoo the other day,and in other news, I got myself a camphone!!!!!! bin clicking pix left n right, .Just check out the pix
EDIT: All right ... ~*Deepa*~ had a blogger meeting recently, and i felt sorta jealous and felt like writing this one down too! Of course , you know poison, and occasionally frantic...(theyre the pple in the pic!) And two more bloggers from TVM(let them reveal themselves), whom we met during this brief soujourn in college.
Its kinda weird, the life of a blogger... sharing our life with people who are suchj total strangers to us, and often with things we wouldnt normally do in real life.Along the way, We've met a lot of our fellows, and some still remain elusive, some have quit, and some blot like there is no tomorrow...

Why the sudden introspection? will say soon:)

As The end draws near

2006-06-24T10:16:00.000+05:30

First on the list was the ITC exam...the first of several back papers I'd accumulated....I really wasnt motivated to study it... i knew some of it , and really expect a revaluation to save my skin-not that it would...its more random, It would make the parameters for randomness in ITC seem like nothing!but then again, KU is worth a rant all to itself, which shall be published when I'm free of its clutches! The second Exam was CS, which i got undersessionals , and re-heh-heally bad marks due to a tiff between me and the teacher concerned.Seriously,there should be some form of accountablity..Never mind

This post isnt about any of that , neither is it about the last one, the one which i have been writing for Eons , the one about which I'm eminently scared.Another battle,another day!What this post IS is about the course VIVA which happened in between!Now this is one occcasion all the resident bookworms fear , for it has been said that all but bookish things be on the menu, and that , they certainly cant digest! And me , study?and that too for a viva, when i have a back paper before and after the viva?
NOT! Slept all the previous day, then studied for the following days exam at the viva while people were opening books they'd never seen in their entire lives!

The actual viva went off without a hitch! Frantic was first up... he handled it quite well, and came out quite happy..Then others started getting off topic questions, and by the time my time was up, i was literally jumping up and down with anxiety!Either way, my time came , and i got in

where are you from?

Sir.....
Oh, ok
tell me about your main project!

Sir it was basically a development of our mini... after we developed the mini, we felt we could do it a bit further...3~30 cm range , dimensions 25x25 cm.. 3d user interface,bunch of rangers, for virtual reality, ease of use , simplicity, reliablity, blah..............

ok, ok good . Tell me about your mini then!

Sir a simpler version of the one i told you about, 10~80 cm range, one dimension,series of detectors simple , easy to use , flexible , addable as OEM, future of the interface ...more blah...

hmmm , your seminar, what was it about?

Sir digital audio systems sir..

Okay, tell me about noise reduction

OH?(feeling in my element ) 2 ways , equalization, companding , dolby a , b, c ,hx pro, magnetization+ tape transer magnetization curve,b in audio tapes, 120uS eq in tapes ,DBX , dynamic noise redn,compression, AGC, transmit, recieve, inverse characteristic, better noise performance

hmm... how about dolby, digital theatre systems ...DTS right?

Yes sir , in addition there is SDDS (sony) and THX(lucsfilm)
All of em are multi channel sound formats , typically 5.1.. lossy compression codecs, use redundancy in multi channel sound, dts-1.5mbps ,DD 448 kbps , dts on cd , dd on film only sync pulses for dts films..

what are the sampling rates in studios

44.1Khz, or usually oversampled, now dvd's take 48 or 96 or even 192... depends . Old story about how 44.1 was chosen becos VHS tapes were used and sony wanted some 74 minute orchestra to fit ..

hmm... digital radio?

hm... Digital broadcasting in AM band , low bitrates, SBR , better frequency range, am not used a lot(floundered a bit here , thankfully, he asked me about )

Software radio?

Well, normal radios-> baseband tuners , IF tuners , am demodulators, FM demodulators, diff circuitry, hardware , need to switch, costs , bulk etc

s/w radios -> RF-> DSP doing RF work, to give baseband signal, one rx can recieve entire band independent of modulation technique, ex my tv tuner can get TV and FM cos its the same freq band , diff modulation techniques , same hardware, only change of s/w ...

um... thats about enough...you may go now .. ask the next student to wait for a few minutes...(phew!)

me + the other guys went on a scavenger hunt for a bunch of signatures, (no dues certificate:- to prove that i dont owe anything to SCT...I do actually, but Shhh!)

we were so busted after that, we went to the nearest shop, and drank it dry...(seriously... there wasnt nething else left there to drink) we drank to the college , to our exams , to drinking competitions(which i usally lose ), heck... we drank a whole lot (of cola btw, for those who were wondering )... finally after settling the three digit bill(its just a bakery people !), we carried each other out ...I for one was all bloated and burping :D!

When I came back, a whole mob was waiting...IDIOT ... you PWNED him... now he's taking it out on everyone else... fat lot of good you did us!!!!!
We beat a hasty retreat soon!

The day after , i had an exam, which was ok, and more importantly, mock interviews..NO, i wasnt attending them,I for one was pulling the shots !! The juniors who i talkd to seem quite all right,We can already plan to drop the work we're gonna be given soon onto them when THEY come after one year !Here's to the next generation of intrepid SCT'ians !

PWNED!!!!!!!!!

2006-06-19T18:30:00.000+05:30

Thats right. The last lab session in this long drawn out college life has ended and its the same old story.. Zero to output in < 45 minutes! Its been a long standing tradition, and i wanted to keep it that away!And I'm sure glad i did..Being able to figure out stuff, and ace in things practical is one of the things I'm proud of .Every lab exam till date, I've come out within the hour (remember these are three hour lab exams ) most people might manage this for SOME labs, but I'm talking about all of them..be they laughably easy or forbiddingly hard, I've come out of labs faster and less unscathed more than most!(and With top marks i might add !) My passing the theory papers is a matter of probability, but i can say with certainty, this lab has been finished! Now for the Course viva... the man to be faced is apparently the Barton Hill college E&C HOD..We've locked horns before(during a project presentation at CET... would you believe the guy wanted the volume control to reset itself when you removed your hand?!!!!!!) Anyway, I have tons of back papers to clear... but there are these little things in life which make a geek feel that his life is indeed , worthwhile:)

Subtle humour ;)

2006-06-14T19:31:00.000+05:30

Tests :Which computer are you

2006-06-14T06:34:00.000+05:30

Concept Gamer
You scored 215 skilled, 115 artistic, 170 gamer, and 10 conformity!

You know those gaming rigs that get featured in magazines because they were so cool? You build those. You have the skills and the artistic talent to design the most outlandish gaming rigs ever. They not only look cool, but they run cool too. You could probably overclock most of them without any issues.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 78% on skilled
You scored higher than 91% on artistic
You scored higher than 82% on gamer
You scored higher than 0% on conformity

Link: The Which Computer are You Test written by mridlen

Tests: Grammar Nazi

2006-06-13T16:18:00.000+05:30

This has to be true...I got 29/30!I absolutely detest people Who talk like "Im lyk dat nly" or , "can u cum online"(ROFL!)!!!!

Fellow Grammar Nazi
Congratulations! You scored 29 of 30!

You're a Grammar Nazi too. What more can I say? My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 86% on grampoints

Link: The Grammar Nazi Test

SCT? or not to be?

2006-06-11T10:17:00.000+05:30

Now that My stint as SCT is over,and Infy is taking over, I'm passing over my mantle of college student to my sister. May she carry the torch with the same pride that i did!
Now for the business at hand. Several of her batch have been asking me whether EC@SCT is good enough...If I had a chance to have my college life any other way, I would still have chosen then...I had a choice then , and i still have one now, But SCT stays , as the college of my choice.
But will i choose anyone else to have the same fate?It depends. It depends on the type of student you are now. it depends on the type of student you wanna be .
If you wanna be a student, want to spend your life as you spent in school,you're welcome to join any of the multitude of schools of engineering with AC classrooms, Uniforms , and the like. Of course , having been in school for a whole two extra years doesn't help make that choice. Among us there are those who had the privilege of enjoying Pre Degree college(not me though, I had my 12th in Sarvodaya).But they helped define the college experience , which wont be there anymore. Even our teachers tell us that the junior batches are more manageable cos they're basically school students, not college students. Guess thats a lost cause there. But still, SCT and CET and a few other colleges hold the fort of students freedom. If you want college to be a part of that transformation to an adult, to enjoy and suffer all the good and bad things the world has to offer,choose SCT. Sure , we have shortcomings. Our faculty may not be the best there is , but there sure are some really good teachers in there. But no different from, say CET.
The real difference is that in the personality you're developing.If getting an MBA , or good people skills are what matters to you, dealing with tough situations that help bring out the best in you,and making you ready for whats out there in the real world, then SCT is the college for you.Sure there are rumours that SCT is the only college that figures in the top 5 criminal colleges in the list made by the TVM police,that there are parties in existense despite the fact theyre not required, or that we have as many (or more strikes) that CET or SCT.It is one helluva trip.but one that was worth it.The internal marking is quite strict, you wont get 45-50 most probably for internals!If youre one of those types(who i personally despise) who feel placements are all that matters, SCT should figure high on your list.if you can talk coherently in english(no, not ingleesh) and have no problems getting aong with most people , and manage a good percentage, You'll prolly be hired.We've had a pretty good record this year, and in fact , most companies relaxed academic criterion for us because gettimg marks is pretty tough when youre in SCT.Our college is like a small scale banana republic, where you enjoy a LOT of freedom..When to show up in class, when to cut it, when to call a strike, stuff which you most probably wont find in any of those "schools" of engineering.A mini democracy of sorts, shall we say?In the end, it all is your choice.batches vary....the batch you get into could be the best or the worst...I'm glad I ended up among the better ones, and found a lot of good friends.Your future depends on the choices you make.Choose to take a path of academic growth, or personal growth.Its in your hands...

The Music Tag

2006-06-05T17:08:00.000+05:30

I've been away... for a Long time, and i didnt want to come back until after all the exams , but there is one tag which dUTtan did which i just HAVE to do, after all, I was among the first to jump onto the last.fm bandwagon!
As duttan says ,

Last.fm is the ultimate social networking site for music lovers. The interface, design and interactiveness of the site makes it far better than even Orkut, for music lovers.

so if all you people haven't joined last.fm, do so, especially those of you who Love their music!Check out the Red last.fm button at the bottom of this page.Inaddition to the music indexing, last.fm also offers a really nice radio service!But you need to have >128kbps connectivity tho.The tag goes like this...
Name your top 10 most played Artists on Last.fm

1 Jim Reeves 3237
2 Willie Nelson 637
3 Il Divo 328
4 Patsy Cline 313
5 Nat King Cole 293
6 Mantovani 273
7 Bobby Bare & Skeeter Davis 259
8 Tammy Wynette 255
9 Connie Francis 249
10 Andrea Bocelli 241

And the questions.....

1.What was the first song you ever heard by 6?
Technically, It was a casette called "I cant stop loving You",which i bought from scrap,but I never could listen to it anyway,and the one i really could Listen to was "Magnificent melodies"

2.What is your favourite album of 2?
It has to be "It will Always be.."
A recent album, with several beautiful duets including one with Norah jones!

3.How many times have you seen 4 live?
never! In fact, she died on 1963,21 years before i was even born
4.What is your favourite song by 7?

Well, to be specific, I dont know, mostly because their duets sound the same , and even George Jones's duets with Tammy Wynette Sound the same.But If had had to pick one, I guess it would have to be "Too Used To Being With You"

5.What is your favourite lyric that 2 has sung?
One of the most touching song's I've ever heard, not just sung By willie, but also covered byseveral country artists, Is the track"Crazy".Some of you might remember it from K-ROSE in GTA:SA

I'm crazy
crazy for feeling so lonely
I'm crazy
crazy for feeling so blue
I know
you'd love me as long as you wanted
then someday
leave me for somebody new
(bridge)
worry
why do I let myself worry
wondring
what in the world did I do
crazy
for thinking that my love could hold you
I'm crazy for crying
I'm crazy for trying
I'm crazy for loving you

Unlike a lot of current artists who depend on others to do the songwriting, he is also the songwriter.In fact, in a concert version of this, he jokes, he was going to call it "stupid", instead of crazy
6.What is your favourite song by 9
It has to be Santa Lucia,one of the most famous Neapolitan songs, an ode dedicated to the city of Naples and to the Santa Lucia area which faces the Gulf of Naples.

The lyrics are the words of a boatman describing the view from Santa Lucia: It is night and the moon is reflected in the sea. He tells us of the indescribable magic that one can feel while watching the boats in the sea; how they sail softly, driven by a gentle breezes.

7.How did you get in to 3?

Il Divo being a more Recent band, I saw them on Zee Cafe I think, singing A cover of Toni Braxton's Unbreak My Heart (Regresa A Mi)
8.What was the first song you heard by 1

I really dont know I've been Listening to him ever since I was conceived! ...me , My parents, and THEIR parents were all Jim reeves fans
9.What is your favourite song by 4?
Well, It has to be True Love...

While I give to you
And you give to me
True love, true love
So on and on
It will always be
True love, true love
For you and I have a guardian angel
On high with nothing to do
But to give to you
And to give to me
Love forever true
But to give to you
And to give to me
Love forever true
Love forever true

Most of these songs are short, but sound very touching...
10.How many time have you seen 9 live?
Never. And Connie's singing career waned after 1974..
11.What is a good memory you have concerning 2?
It doesent have anything to Do with any songs...In the movie "Austin powers,The spy who shagged me" Willie , or a lookalike has a funny cameo:

[Noticing Dr. Evil's spaceship on radar]
Radar Operator: Colonel, you better have a look at this radar.
Colonel: What is it, son?
Radar Operator: I don't know, sir, but it looks like a giant...
Jet Pilot: Dick. Dick, take a look out of starboard.
Co-Pilot: Oh my God, it looks like a huge...
Bird-Watching Woman: Pecker.
[raising binoculars] Bird-Watching Man: Ooh, Where?
Bird-Watching Woman: Over there. What sort of bird is that? Wait, it's not a woodpecker, it looks like someone's...
Army Sergeant: Privates. We have reports of an unidentified flying object. It has a long, smooth shaft, complete with...
Baseball Umpire: Two balls.
[looking up from game]
Baseball Umpire: What is that. It looks just like an enormous...
Chinese Teacher: Wang. pay attention.
Wang: I was distracted by that giant flying...
Musician: Willie.
Willie: Yeah?
Musician: What's that?
[squints] Willie: Well, that looks like a huge...
Colonel: Johnson.
Radar Operator: Yes, sir?
Colonel: Get on the horn to British Intelligence and let them know about this.

12.Is there a song of 8 that makes you sad?
Gotta Be "Help Me make It through the night"..

Yesterday is dead and gone
And tomorrow's out of sight
I don’t want to be alone
Help me make it through the night

13.What is your favourite album of 5?
Gotta be "The Velvet Voice"..His voice really is too good ...

14.What is your favourite lyric that 3 has sung?
I'm not sure, I used to listen to Il Divo a Lot a Long time ago... there are Others who I'd rather listen to than them, Like Dottie west for example.
but If .if I had to choose, it would be "Every Time I look At You"

I used to think that I was strong
I realise now I was wrong
'Cause every time I see your face
My mind becomes an empty space
And with you lying next to me
Feels Like I can hardly breathe

I close my eyes
The moment I surrender to you
Let love be blind
Innocent and tenderly true
So lead me through tonight
But please turn out the light
'Cause I'm lost every time I look at you

15.What is your favourite song of 1?
Ah... so many songs,But which to choose...
It would have to be "The talking walls"Though i heard this song only quite recently, somehow,the tone of the song hits a chord with me

When the shades of twilight close the day in my solitute I steal away
And a sweet familiar voice calls from the shadows of the talking walls
The talking walls bring laughter tears and pain
A touch of summer's love and winter's rain
Every step we made my heart recalls you are there behind the talking walls
[ piano ]
As they speak to me I hear your name and a spark is kindled to a flame
Such a vivid memory walks in and I'm reaching for the phone again

16.What is your favourite song of 10?

Well, to be honest,This song has been on repeat ever since I started to write this Tag, and i still am not getting tired of it!Andrea Does A great job in the Disc "Amore".... alll the tracks are good listening!
17.How many times have you seen 8 live?

Tammy Wynette's a recent discovery of mine, having laid my hands on an entire collection of vinyls that were never released as CD...Nope, still not seen her
18.What is your favourite album of 1

I've actually got a 16 CD set of Jim Reeves, which has pretty much ALL the songs he ever sang!Think I'll choose that one.Though his greatest Hits Vol:2 also deserves a mention!
19.Is there a song of 3 that makes you sad?
The onlysad song by Il Divo is Unbreak My Heart (Regresa A Mi)... all the rest of them are mostly love or of other nature, and no, it doesnt make me sad, not like the way a Jim reeves song does..
20.What is a great memory you have considering 9?

I caught This connie francis album in a shop in the half price section once in july.Notwithstandding the fact that it was only july,I bought that Cassette, and hid it the rest of the year, and gave it to my parents for chrismas!and they really loved it!And least surprised was dad who i had to take into confidence for the monetary assistance, as well as his opinion about her

Sorry guys,but bear with me for a while

2006-02-18T16:25:00.000+05:30

I know I hate my friends taking off from blogger, and have tried the most to woo them back to blogger, and I’m sort of now on a sabbatical from blogger, Not because I don’t want to blog, but because there's absolutely TONS of work lying around :(... lets see what all I have to do....

First of all, because of all my following tasks, my folks been worried Sick, and my Ma has literally been worried sick.. she's gonna be home for some time and I got to look after her.

Then there's QUEST '06 our college's BIG bash. I've been part of it since second year and This year its gonna be Incredibly huge given all those yummy sponsors we've got! IBM , Flextronics, Centurion bank , Kodak and Infosys are sure fire and AMD, ASUS, Intel, and a lot more biggies are coming. All of this needs huge back end work, and I'm actually glad to say i did a good amount of all that work. The corporate letters, the PowerPoint presentations, not to mention some of the technical thingies I'll be handling! Previously, we had a budget of approx one lakh, and mostly our own money, and it was mostly informal. Now it’s matured and grown even better, but that brings with it its own responsibilities. Esp. when you're dealing with several lakhs from corporates! Thankfully, I've got a HELL of a killer team and I’ve no worries. If you are gonna see any more posts from me, it will probably on the QUEST BLOGCheck it out! I set it up... along the lines of my current template-> should look cool with or without pics I'll prolly appropriate the template for my blog after quest is over!

Well quest is not all, I’ve apparently got two B school calls (surprise!!!!!!) and one of them (XLRI) is really good! Need to focus on nailing the interviews! Hope all this corporate experience from running quest will be enough!

Then there is my main project! Oooh what a beauty! Its one of my greatest dreams and its coming true... but its heavy work, in the fact that everything we're doing for it is new. It involves a lot of Video DSP, windows drivers, and product design, none of which we've even known of before! Add to that the fact that we're trying to patent it, that’s a lot of work, especially the patents bit!

Another labour of love is arun's new Amp that we're bulding. using all the engineering and audio gyaan i've gathered over the years. we mean to tweak it to perfection.8inch woofers with rubber surrounds, one inch textile dome tweeters, pc based remote control(yeah!) Blue LED displays ... its gonna be majorly cool!

And then there's that horrible plague of holidays, the Infosys campus connect class! every free day, our sirs take joy in taking the fun out of all that by making us listen to stuff like RDBMS....(yawn! ) where Me, fellow electronics and mech guys get shocked and awed while the Comp sci and IT guys try to look interested and doze off. Well now we've learnt to do that too, but they’re dozing off cos they know it already! Anyways we've got a new teacher this time, and err, overall attention from the guys is up, but I wouldn’t say its focused on the courseware :P

And last but not least, there is rumor that something called final semester is going on in college. I wouldn’t know, I’m the record attendance % holder (would you believe i got 37%!-If it were an exam, I’d have failed already!!!!)And even when I’m in class I'm too busy grabbing ZZZZ's

Hopefully I'll try to catch up on all what you guys have been upto, and comment now and then.Meanwhile, Ciao!

The end of an era

2006-02-07T22:32:00.000+05:30

Tomorrow, I leave for Delhi to try my luck with the IIT Delhi MBA admissions. As I look back, I can’t but notice that this is, in some ways, what I never wanted to happen, and in another way, what I always wanted to be. Its odd how to different things can work towards the same end result, and I’m a victim of that…

Once upon a time, when I was a wide eyed school student, I once opened up my stereo and found a huge range of circuitry which then amazed me. I was resolute. I would take up electronics at college. At that point, everyone was saying IT was the big thing at that time, and I said electronics would do quite well for me. Then entrance came, and I found myself amidst a flood of prospective engineers, all of whom apparently wanted electronics. CET was the obvious choice, and I worked hard. Apparently I couldn’t make it to CET Electronics. Though I had a choice of any other branch there, Electronics It had to be, After all, I had to make the coolest music systems around didn’t I?
          SCT, initially though I was a bit sad about it, seemed a better chance day after day. By some point in the 5th semester; I was positively content with SCT. Following the debacle at dyuthi, I’m positively ecstatic; after all, living in SCT has given me access to a slice of life like no other.After all, it has made me a better human being!
Still, I was under the stranglehold of a system of education which encourages people to learn for exams, not learning’s sake. The result is a class full of people who can write page length essays on, say op amps, but wouldn’t have the foggiest Idea of one even if it hit them in the face! This sorry state of events led me to neglect my “academic studies” more and more, and more in pursuit of knowledge. There’s a pink Floyd song that goes,” we don’t need no education”. At some point, when education is irrelevant, and when one knows better, it seems pointless. For example, I wanted to know about op amps in third SEM, and not a single lecturer had the time to spare to clear my doubt.” only in fourth sem”, they all chorused. At that point, I gave up on studying, and decided to learn the trade myself.
               And now, I feel I have accomplished what I set out to do over four years ago, I have made music systems, I have the coolest one around, and I AM making an even cooler one now! Whatever is being taught now seems totally irrelevant and useless to me. Biomedical, computer networks……. The list is mind numbing. And to top it all of, I’m currently placed in an IT co. ironically, the they seemed to favor electronics students, and all the electronics students seemed happy to get IT jobs, while the it students found them selves worse off. I don’t blame my fellows, getting a job in electronics is hard enough. Many don’t make it into even a software job….

And then comes along inDSP. The company which I thought would be my salvation. Its jobs spanning all the areas of electronics in which I was interested in. I was the one who mailed our CGPU the details of the co, the one who ran after the cgpu head asking when inDSP would come….finally inDSP is coming tomorrow, and I’m not going for it.

It’s not because it is not all that I ever dreamed of. It’s because the me who dreamed of a career in tech doesn’t exist anymore. That part of my mind has been numbed by the dreary routine of studying in this dreadful hellhole called KU.I positively couldn’t stand the thought of two more years of THIS in the name of post graduation. If I can’t study something without appreciating it, its better I not study it at all. I learnt that at an early age.
In 10th standard, I was really good at math. And then 12th came along, and almost all my classmates switched to a new tuition’s all my best friends were going there, so did I... never knew I was making the worst mistake of my life. SHE was horrible. Many words come to me when I think of words to describe her, but some things are better left unsaid. she’s the sole reason I began to hate math .I beat a quick retreat to good old Alex sir(god bless him) I was back where I should have always been, but by then, the damage was already done.

Either way, my sister is preparing for her entrance exams. I wonder where fate will find her four years down the line. I just hope she doesn’t fall victim to fate….

Man proposes, god disposes.....

some darned cute animals!

2006-01-31T10:15:00.000+05:30

from niki's blog

from shrutz' blog

the perfect gal tag

2006-01-25T07:50:00.000+05:30

I have been tagged by Ashok
he asked me to write 8 points about my perfect lover so here are the eight points:

Rules of the game are …

1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. Need to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they’ve been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there’s no need to post again.

Sex of the target : Female

My perfect lover should be:
1) She should listen and appreciate my kind of music..(Extra points for being a jim reeves fan) and occasionally join me karaoke-ing!

2)should be ready to see me eye to eye… neither one of those man eating independent types(who’ll prolly look down on me:( ) nor those relationshippy types who literally cling on to a man( who I look down upon)…call it the right degree of independence. she should be able to know how much space I need.

3) Should know how to appreciate humor. One of the things that makes a guy feel good about himself is his ability to make a gal laugh, but then again there are some gals who’d laugh at next to nothing. Those are the bane of any raconteur! I’d rather have someone who has the ability to actually comprehend what’s being said! Sort of , be complement my sense of humor!

4) Should have a reasonable grasp of technology.(anyone who managed to reach here is good enough) No “ooh what does THIS button do?” types, and at the same time, no uber geeks!

5) Should know how to be precise. I can understand stuff the first time you say it! Yeah that means no nags! If she’s expressive, and If I can read her face like a book, It’d be great. I’m NOT one of those types who thinks “fine” , when said by a woman means something else, I guess I’ll have to wait for that Martian<-> venutian translator! But then again, should be good conversation! I too do blab to no length. Also, should NOT talk at very high speeds. That’s something that I’ve seen many girls do, and honestly, scares me out of my wits!

6) I’m sort of lazy by nature, but then again, when I have a reason, I can work like a mule! My lover should be motivated (and pass some of that motivation to me… like a coach.. wot say?)One important bit.. Should NOT be a neat freak. If a room is not clean, it wont die or anything!

7) LOW MAINTAINENCE! I’m only one guy… there is only so much I can do! A gal determined to test my (or my credit card) limits will surely finish me off! But then again, I’ll still try my best to make her day, and she should be kind enough to know that I’m trying my best! Similarly, she should make me feel special, and every day is worthwhile!

8) Should be mature enough to understand that I’m a guy after all, and do have some built in flaws.(actually would like her to have a few personality quirks too! ) I might check out another gal, but she should have the sense that in the end, there would only be one person that matters… HER!

In short….SUFFER ME, and I’ll SUFFER YOU:P

Outstanding student!

2006-01-23T12:13:00.000+05:30

I'm typing this up from a cafe near college!. apparently our lecturer didnt like some people making a hubbub in class. He sent one of them out... he was lecturing on and on about how people should be in class, not be smug about how we have jobs, or that we in the final sem.... I was listening to all this, wondering what i would i have told had i bin in his shoes.... Then a sudden smile escaped my face.He caught it and sent me out....No excuses OUT! ... heck, nothing ... i dint stand to plead my case further. I know I aint guilty.Some poeple are irrational I guess...! Anyway, thats some steam let off! what dou you guys think?

Aparanmaar nagarathil

2006-01-16T09:56:00.000+05:30

Finally , now that FMS is over us guys can rest… only problem being that the all important resource , CASH is missing! Coming here was a hoot in itself! The bus journey was fun…now I know why they call em SEMI sleeper’s! we were asleep only half the time, and half awake the rest! And when we got here, got whisked off to this hotel called ajanta. Only problem being we were told that it’d be near kids kemp, and the way we came, no kids kemp in sight! So we got out, walked a bunch and finally saw kids kemp, and realized that we’d gotten to the right place in the first place!!!!!. and the fact that we were walking aroung with our luggage only served to make stuff worse. The hotel is sorta good…It does have its own café! But damn, only 20 odd channels and no international ones

The exam went off without a hitch, and more importantly, we had lots of free time, and went to check out a few malls…and walked a lot… our mistake, we missed a wrong turn somewhere and ended up far, far away from brigade road! Must check that out !

Damn this city is expensive!!!!!! But it does have its merits

The Main project begins..

2006-01-12T19:32:00.000+05:30

Sorry for this short note, but I've been really really busy these days, and continue to do so.The first wave came with a slew of management exams , then their results, and now my main project. I'm working on something that pave way for the extinction of the thing you're probably holding in your hand right now... the mouse..We are working on the 3D UI system that will just require one to move your hand.Normally, this would constitute one hell of a project.but This is only one of several, and frantic insists on us finishing the prototyping in two day! he can be such a slave driver at times..
Anyway, me gotta go through the datasheets of the ol' faithful 16F628 and an ADC and come up with an assembly level program to sample 9 analog inputs, and send them to a PC .Sounds tough? It aint the half of it.. but I aint got time to decribe it:D so cya!... after the work and stuff is finished

Count Dooku?

2005-12-28T08:30:00.000+05:30

how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

Heh heh!.. still thinking about my christmas post... will post though:)

BOREDBAND RANT

2005-12-24T07:45:00.000+05:30

There’s a story about three men who are sentenced to life imprisonment, and get one last wish. So the jailer asks them what they want.

#1 asks for a library… a fully stocked library is set up and the man locked up

#2 asks for his girlfriend… the poor wench is also locked up with him

#3 asks for a lifetime supply of cigarettes. He is given a HUGE pack with great publicity by RJ Reynolds, and a movie made about it, and he gets a number of endorsement contracts as well.

The point is, theyre all locked up , and much, MUCH later, when their pardon applications fall through, (RED TAPE!), their cells are opened, Lo and behold, the first man has become a bearded scholar.

The second man is none the worse, having several generations of kids(don’t even ask me how!)

But its for the third man that this story was written.When they opened the door,the cigarettes were all intact, and he was looking about himself, and the first thing he asked was , “GOT A LIGHT?”

Sigh!... poor guy…

I’m unfortunately, in the same way now, Having a 256kbps connection with a 325 MB limit the damn thing is there, and I hold four times my earlier speed in my hand, yet cant use it It sucks BIG time, like driving a Ferrari in city traffic..

My whole routine till now was built around downloading, I cant go to sleep now in peace knowing that a torrent isn’t downloading, and cant wake up to see “task finished @ 7Kbps”… I used to simply waste time looking at my d/l speed graph, and feel better when it was in the better half of 7.. which recently hasn’t been much. That’s why I’m switching ISP’s to BSNL. Right now, I’m in sort of a limbo, in a limited Asianet plan, waiting for BSNL….. cant wait to see the sweet graph go upto 32K and stay there all night.

BEYBLADE

2005-12-22T09:25:00.000+05:30

Did you know that Cartoon network now have a whole 1 and a half hour ad slot? you might not notice it, but three anime series which are thinly veiled adds for kids toys, dolls, cards and tops have taken over the prime CN spot.Still no idea?

Do the names Pokemon, or Beyblade ring a bell?

Yup. we used to have gi joe and their ilk trying to sell us stuff, now others are cashing in on kids in a BIG way.Not that i mind, because not being a school kid does make you feel like a wise man dishing out advice to school kids:D

Among the three, I like Beyblade a lot, in fact, seen most of it.Unlike the other two, there's something in it thats inherently techie..they use tops(called beyblades) to battle, and they continously upgrade theirs using different parts like stabilizers, attack rings and so on, so for an engineer-wannabe, there's nothing better!

but more importantly the story line- somehow, I always identify with the antagonists.. and this series has a vast array of complex characters(sort of like a soap!)
example
King and queen, theyre a bunch of parts thieves. but recently reformed themselves in a recent episode
the team leader, Rei of Tyson's team is himself a former adversary
the current villain Zio is a noob who was apprenticed to tyson, but after a revelation from his father(not shown), turns archrival when he gets a super unbeatable beyblade..

of all these though, one guy stands out.... Ozuma... the leader of the saint shields, a team which has been entrusted with keeping the powerful bitbeasts within these blades safe.The winning team has the four 'sacred" bitbeasts which should *NOT* fall into evil's hands.At first, they battle the protagonists, and try to win at all costs, for such is their mission.They dont battle for personal glory, but because it is their duty.Its actually refreshing to see such a sort of non- good vs evil battle.the saint shields can never be classified as evil.they have their own mission, and are focussed on it.But there is a sort of irony in it:D which i managed to spot... Their mission is to capture the four most powerful bitbeasts, but if their own bitbeasts beat the heroe's bitbeasts, wont the saint shield's OWN bitbeasts become the most powerful ones:P. either way, they reach a compromise, and currently the heroes are defending their world championship.
EDIT
YUCK! just when you begin to like something, they screw it up... it turns out zio's fatal secret is that he is not a boy, but an intelligent robot that was built by his dad to replace him, and that if he gets the sacred bitbeasts, he will be live again... GEEEZ!

ITS FUN TO WATCH CARTOONS:P!!!!!!

portuguese?

2005-12-21T13:38:00.000+05:30

You Should Learn Portuguese

Muito legal! For you, learning a language is all about the lifestyle that comes with it.
And Brazilian beaches, hotties, parties, and soccer matches are just your style.

What Language Should You Learn?

2005-12-20T23:37:00.000+05:30

You Have a Sanguine Temperament

You are an optimistic person who is easily content.
You enjoy casual, light tasks - never wanting to delve too deep into anything.
A bit fickle, it's easy for you to change plans or paths when presented with something better.

You enjoy all of the great things life has to offer - food, friends, and fun.
A great talker, you can keep the conversation going for hours.
You are optimistic and sure of your success. If you fail, you don't worry about it too much.

At your worst, you are vain. You are obsessed with your own attractiveness.
A horrible flirt, you tend to jump into love affairs and relationship drama easily.
You're very jealous - which just magnifies the craziness around you.

What Temperment Are You?

tribute to soldering iron v.2

2005-12-17T22:59:00.000+05:30

As mandated by the Kerala university syllabus, most of us electronics students have to complete electronics workshop, a bit where you actually do the dirty work of electronics, and are required to come up with fully functional circuits, and the tool for the job?... the soldering iron.
For most of us, it meant only one thing…SOLDRON, the company which apparently holds the monopoly in soldering irons. Recommended by everyone and then some. Like any young and eager student- one of the reasons I chose to study electronics was because they taught how to solder (SERIOUSLY!) – acquired a soldron. Unfortunately, the damn thing never did work! Fed up with the “high quality” of the market leader, I went back to thakaraparamb -the local Mecca of all electronics students, where building up a good rapport with the traders can be beneficial (Would you believe I coaxed out the entire instructions on how to assemble a music system out of a shopkeeper!) and the shop that sold me the Iron, the biggest shop there, Vrinda flatly refused to take back my iron! Fed up, I went to every other shop looking for an iron that was not made by soldron. I forget the name of the make, but not the shop I got it from, Caso Fonics. IMO the Best shop at there! At least I got real chummy with the shopkeeper, and I know all of them, and most of them know me too! Unlike the “Were too busy for small folk like you” attitude at Vrinda, the people at caso are much friendlier, and have everything I needed too!
Anyway, the second one was a local make, smaller, and much cheaper,120 vs. the 175 I paid for a soldron In retrospect, it was better it was small. I had some pretty good adventures with it: D. Made a whole bunch of circuits and with a success rate several times over our class average. And the smaller bit made it easier to use too, unless the bulky soldrons, which I found more unwieldy
Even better, the thing had a translucent handle, and had a red LED in it! It was so much cooler than the rest, I for one always knew when it was on, unlike the others who had to actually use their sense of smell ;) only then, another guy came up with one just like mine…confusion… then mine went kaput and his light went off, so I offered to repair his if he loaned it to me, soon mine had a GREEN led and his had the original red one… Repaired, they were the pride of the owners :>
All of this came to a close when during our final stages of the miniproject; the whole thing went up in a bang when one of us sat on it. It took the fuse along with it! And the concerned persons backside! Thankfully, it was around 2 am, and no one else noticed!
Thus my soldering iron lies in its current resting place at frantic’s house. I wonder if it still can be resurrected, probably with a new heating element and more importantly, a BLUE led to show that it is in its third version………I need a soldering iron now, stuff has to be done, let me see.
1) Put an LED on the empty space marked LED on the PCB of my old mouse and do a bit of modding on it :>
2) fabricate headphone extensions for duttan and ashok
3) try to get Ashok’s unused FM/AM board working at my house
4) Repair Sid’s amp’s volume control… (It’s getting noisy!)
5) Do my Main project! My dream, the Om hreem volume control is finally progressing. Me and frantic have some differences on how to use the thing, as a joystick or as a mouse, and the range of the sensors etc…..Frantic, DUDE! We have to order them fast!
Its silly how people get attached to the silliest of things, for most of my classmates, a soldering iron was just something that they had to buy to solder circuits to pass electronics workshop, and then to be forgotten. To me, it was a valuable tool, something that has been with me, through almost four full reels of solder wire, and must have been used more than half the other soldering irons in class combined! Maybe it’s because I spent so much time using it, that I have grown so fond of it. It was like a mechanic’s favourite wrench, an artist’s favourite brush, a writer’s favourite pen, a wizard’s wand…..it will be hard letting go, if I ever have to...

My Music

2005-12-07T03:12:00.000+05:30

Ashok and some others had posted poems which they apparently thought appropriate.I was rather stumped, looking at them, for i never knew how to appreciate them!( i once entered our school poetry writing competition once, and even qualified(over our regular poet wannabe's... )Aparently the teacher who was judging liked my free verse..I still love free verse, and wouldnt write any other way:P

back to the subject, I thought, Heck! Why look for something someone wrote and i dont even care much for, than something that I know and have come to love, and hence this...This is from a JIM REEVES song that i know, and come to empathize with, and only now have i come to find out that it is actually, a cover of a song by Hank Williams Sr.Most country songs deal with heartbreak and lonliness, and this one is no exception.Somehow, hearbreak seems to bring the best out in some men....

Men With Broken Hearts

You will meet many just like me, upon life's busy street,
with shoulders stooped and heads bowed low and eyes that stare in defeat.
For souls that live within the past where sorrow plays all parts,
for a living death is all that's left for men with brokens hearts.
You have no right to be the judge, to criticise and condemn.
Just think but for the grace of God it would be you instead of him.
One careless step, a thoughtless deed and then the misery starts
and to those who weep death comes cheap, these men with broken hearts.
Humble you should be when they come passing by,
for its written that the greatest of men never get to big to cry.
Some lose faith in love and life when sorrow shoots her darts,
with hope all gone, they walk alone, these men with broken hearts.
You've never walked in that man's shoes or saw things through his eyes,
or stood and watched with helpless hands while the heart inside you dies.
Some were paupers, some were kings, some were masters of the arts,
but in their shame they're all the same, these men with broken hearts.
Life sometimes can be so cruel that a heart will pray for death.
God! why must these living dead know pain with every breath?
So help your brother along the road, no matter where he starts!
For the God that made you,made them too. These men with broken hearts........

2005-12-05T22:30:00.000+05:30

2005-12-03T22:32:00.000+05:30

How You Life Your Life

You seem to be straight forward, but you keep a lot inside.
You're laid back and chill, but sometimes you care too much about what others think.
You tend to have one best friend you hang with, as opposed to many aquaintences.
Some of your past dreams have disappointed you, but you don't let it get you down.

How Do You Live Your Life?

2005-12-03T22:25:00.000+05:30

Your Fortune Is

Man with hole in pocket feel cocky all day.

The Wacky Fortune Cookie Generator

tryin to forget

2005-11-29T23:38:00.000+05:30

I have an exam the day after. I had one today. I am supposed to be studying. Yet I cant, I just cant, something keeps haunting me, something I just need to try to get out of my mind. It all started with the cat next door having kittens. And every time that happens, they end up on our house (suspicious glance at neighbor!) And like Deepa Once blogged about kittens, they look cute, but at someone else’s house. I rather paid no attention to them, having been once the cause for a kitten’s mysterious disappearance and hold myself responsible for its death. Having considered myself a cold blooded murderer, I felt it better if I kept off, and rather not bring back any painful memories.
However, there is a laaarge bunch of anthuriums and orchids, some rare, and some imported, in my house, and turns out, the kittens and these plants were mutually exclusive. So I, having next to nothing to do, was deputed the task of being the evil henchman. Having run around the house for about 15 minutes trying to chase down them darn kittens, I was pronounced a good for nothing (I Was rather beginning to enjoy it , and rather than trying to actually chase them , was more trying to tease them and the were generally being playful, It was fun!) and the *expert* was sent in. soon the kittens were airborne , and well on their way to the neighbors yard. Unfortunately, one of them hit the wall rather hard, and I heard the sound. I thought nothing happened, cats have nine lives after all, and went back to dusting off my lying-in- disuse cassette collection.
I couldn’t concentrate, and kept on thinking of the thud, with which the poor thing hit the wall. Finally, being unable to think anything else went to the terrace to check on the poor thing, and it turns out, it is still lying motionless, not crying, and not even twitching. I couldn’t bear to keep on watching it. I came back into my room.
Once upon a time, I sort of thought, even fancied myself as a tough-as-nails kid who didn’t mind killing. Over the years, I had lost that feeling, regret and shame sort of came over it, all because I had once sort of rolled a rock over a hole in which the poor kitten had hidden itself, and though myself smart over having outsmarted it in a game of hide ‘n’ seek. (I thought, “Who’s the smart on now eh?” then, and felt better about it,)I forgot about the rock for a matter of days, and remembered about it only when the kitten failed to show up. I ran in panic to the hole and rolled back the stone.
Nothing……………no kitten, then again, I don’t remember any other trace of it. It seemed a deep burrow, having an excess of burrowing rats over there.
I still don’t know if it died or else, but I never saw it again. Seeing the poor kitten thrown against a wall like a coconut at the floor like in a temple was something I was not prepared for. I winced at the thud, and it keeps back playing in my head. Back then , I was a foolish and bored kid, not so anymore, maybe that’s what’s different. Maybe then I might have thought “that’ll show them vermin to keep off our plants”. Not so any more…
Then again, if they were rats, or snakes, or snails, we might not have cared at all, thought nothing of it, because these kittens looked, sounded, and felt cute might be the reason why I feel so much for then. Which leads to one thing? Is it just the looks we care about? A rat and a kitten do the same damage, are both mammals, and are both living things .Why do I feel remorse in killing one and not the other? Because a cat is traditionally part of our life, while a rat is always, ALWAYS vermin?
The same things happen. When a few hundred people got killed in the US of A, It was sufficient cause to kill thousands, ten thousands, of people who didn’t matter. Why, even more people die because of hunger in poor nations? I bet more people die of hunger than terrorism, and yet more money is being spent on fighting terrorism than hunger.
Having typed out so much, it helps to keep the mind off the the kitten. I went back to the scene of the crime and see the thing rolled back and its poor mother sitting on the wall overlooking where it fell. I felt very weird, very apologetic, like the way you SHOULD feel at a funeral, but never do because you are too bored or too busy. I felt somehow, looking in the poor things eyes, so sorry, so powerless, and just then, from over the wall, another neighbor looked at me and smiled. She couldn’t see what I was looking at, and I couldn’t but feel ashamed. I summoned all the strength in me and managed to flash a passing smile. Even those made me feel all guilty inside….Im back, trying to put my feelings to words, feeling like a wretch , all that pain gnawing away at me…Maybe I’m not the tough guy I used to be .I can almost feel one part of me calling the other WUSS! WUSS! WUSSIE..., maybe I am. I try to distract myself and keep on typing. Maybe because the SH*T that happened today touched a raw nerve.

Tagged again!

2005-11-27T23:03:00.000+05:30

Rockus had gone to great lengths to expound the laws of being a goody two shoes! and now the the tag has come out to me:)
for starters, the laws are as follows

10. Thou shall study your lessons daily and go to the best tuition centre in the town.
9. Thou shall listen to melodious Mallu and Hindi music. Your taste may go up to the extent of listening to pop songs like that of Westlife, BSB etc and like the songs liked by your peers. Hardrock and Metal are strict no-nos.
8. Thou shall see good mallu movies and hindi movies. Only the hyped up english movies shall be seen.
7. Sports and games are essential only in theory. Thou shall take part in it at your free time and your vacation.
6. Reading is a good habit. Only if you score a lot of marks in your studies and you have set aside some time for reading. Thou shall read only goody goody books or the hyped books in the media like Harry Potter.
5. Thou shall respect your teachers and follow every word they say and write notes and complete your assignments before everybody else.
4. Thou shall not swear and berate others. No drinking and smoking.
3. Thou shall follow your parents wishes and their fantasies.Thou shall study hard and score 90+ in Xth, 85+ in XIIth and 80+ for graduation.
2. Your aim should be to do well in entrance exams and get into Medical College or CET. Then the ultimate aim should be to get through your campus placements and secure a job. Write CAT as part of a fad.
1. Thou shall not fall in love. If you do make sure the girl is your caste, not poor etc. Marry a girl of the parents' choosing and have kids. Then the raise the kids on the above principles.

How do I measure up?

10… study daily…yeah right! In college maybe :D and about going to the best tuition centre?. I was offered a scholarship in one of them, unfortunately, I am rather shy of the wrong kind of publicity ( i.e. the type that is NOT among my peers) , cos they put the pix in the papers and everything, so went to individual sirs instead!
9…melodious….Guilty…mallu/hindi…NOT!
No sugar coated pop for me (yuck!)… I luv the oldies…. Manson and Rob zombie are reserved for the times the folks are away!
8 mallu and Hindi movies again? No way! One way to make me watch a movie is when it has an ac3 soundtrack….( to feed all those speakers, plain stereo just aint enuf for 8 ya know, 6 I guess is ok)
7 sports and games? LOL growing up in a place filled with pensioners allowed me to lose quite a few cricket balls in grumpy old ladies yards!. Guess I didn’t have the balls to get them back: D.. Even at school I was too lazy, (used to be the goalie once).. but then cricket fever caught India in a big way and everyone started playing cricket:(
6 unfortunately, I’m very guilty of 6… I’ve read a ton of GK books as a kid…they were the only ones I had!
5 hah hah! Record holder for latest assignment submission @ 3 weeks here
4nope…. No swearing, drinking or smoking…maybe I am a goody two shoes:-?
3 80 in tenth, 85 in 12th (good riddance history, geography and Hindi!) graduation...70 so far:D
2 do well in entrance? I couldn’t get into the one college in the branch I loved! CET electronics no other branch would have done, so I’m in SCT now, but in retrospect, I think it was a choice for the better! CAT? *grins*
1 love? Let’s see how THAT works out!

now, to pass on da tag, lets c...
ashok,chips,divs,jithU,frantic
consider yourselves tagged!

Watch out! he's gonna blow!

2005-11-22T23:28:00.000+05:30

I’ve Known it all along, I’ve tried to hide it, even denied it, but now its out, for the entire world to see. And I dare not argue with myself. So out with the Truth!........I’ve got a paunch now:(((((((….the scourge of every middle aged Indian man , and now this guy’s got it too:( While I must add that The past three days have been the biggest eating binge I’ve ever been through in my entire life, going through banana chips, potato chips, chocolates from chips, a few litres of Fanta, rice, fried rice ….and overall about 1K worth of food for the last three days. In fact, I was temporarily immobilized and slept the entire day before CAT (more on that later!)Now I really have to get some of that old 12th standard self control and rein in that flab:(

Good Sound Comes To trivandrum!

2005-11-14T07:26:00.000+05:30

Finally, a hi fi showroom worth Its salt in trivandrum.This is the stuff my dreams are made of!.Trivandrum is indeed growing up!Check it out people,HiFiDemoroom*DROOOL*

For those Of you who came in late, I think of myself as an authority in these things!Check out my views on Hi Fi

Nihilist Eh?

2005-11-13T09:34:00.000+05:30

You scored as Nihilism. Your life is marked by strong Nihilism: You feel that nothing in the world, even your life, has much or any meaning.

"For out of fear and need each religion is born, creeping into existence on the byways of reason."

"There are no facts, only interpretations."

�Every belief, every considering something-true, is necessarily false because there is simply no true world�

--Friedrich Nietzsche

More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page...

Nihilism

100%

Utilitarianism

100%

Justice (Fairness)

80%

Existentialism

75%

Hedonism

55%

Apathy

50%

Strong Egoism

30%

Divine Command

25%

Kantianism

20%

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03)
created with QuizFarm.com

20 things!

2005-11-12T00:36:00.000+05:30

20) Firstly and most obviously, I listen to a lot of music all the time and very loudly! My selection of music involves everything from Ludacris to frank Sinatra.I especially love JIM REEVES. If you want to know more about what I listen to, seethis

19) Unlike a lot of people, I study engineering, especially my branch, electronics, for the love of it. This does not make me forbiddingly geeky though, since I’ve garnered my fair share of bad papers, and still have one now

18)I am very picky about what I eat! Fish is a definite no-no! In fact, you can chase me with a fishbone! I also try to avoid meat as much as possible, especially beef. I LOVE cheese and paneer! And love to experiment with foods. I actually have my three bottles of sauce, (green, red chili +Soya) which no one else in my family is allowed to touch :D

17)I love all my creations, from the lowly LED flasher’s to my best(yet) masterpiece, the om hreem volume control equally .In fact , every time I finish one , I feel like shouting out “at last, at last, my greatest creation is completed” dexter boy genius style!

16) I love to tweak my PC to perfection. Every little setting has been lovingly nudged so as to work the best. Ooh I love my pc!

15)I love to take stuff apart…every thing my parents bought me, and which I could take apart, I have .Somehow, seeing something’s inside somehow satisfies the curiosity that comes up each time I lay my hands on something

14) I used to be hyperactive as a kid, but now I can fall asleep at the drop of a hat! I surprise myself waking up at the oddest places around the house. Heck, I’ve even slept at college and tuition classes while I was sitting in the front bench (yeah I love to live on the wild side) hehe

13) I have a serious language disability... My parents banned everything Malayalam from my house when I was a kid. So other than being able to speak Malayalam fluently, I can’t write any of it and can read only a bit. I tried to make up for that by trying to learn Hindi… but that bombed grandly too. I actually wanted to learn French, but the CISCE wanted a passport and stuff which I dint have. I didn’t know we were second class citizens!

12) I have officially no existence! When I moved from my old house to this one, we got stuck between two censuses! So I have no ID card, ration card, and I don’t have a driving license. All that proves I exist is my birth certificate

11) I am a champion shopper! In fact, I’ve out shopped the champion shopper race(girls ) many times over and over again during our many IV’s I’m just too choosy when It comes to buying stuff and I tend to drag my feet!

10)I have a knack for coming up with and telling the most inane jokes…called ‘chalus’ in Malayalam. Anyone from sarvodaya will happily support me!
For example,
Three electrons were coming back from pondy to Tamil nadu when at the border; one electron was detained at the border by the police .Why?

A: Pauli’s Exclusion principle (only two electrons may occupy a single state at any given time) Geeky humor aint it?
For quite a while I carried out this sort of thing on anyone and everyone ….until College. A few death threats were enough to make me turn normal!

9) I think I’m too fat! (Don’t we all!)

8) When I got into college, I didn’t know what fear of rejection was. Let’s just say that I do very, VERY well what it means now!

7) I usually try to be nice to everyone and try to get along with everyone. I usually don’t get angry, except on rare occasions, like once when I walked home without an umbrella in the pouring rain (it takes half an hour from the bus stop to my house, and it took longer because it was raining)

6) I have a younger sister who drives me to wit’s end effortlessly. I try to avoid confrontations, and end up losing all the time to her (GRRRR!)

5) For some apparent reason, I understand stuff that’s taught, but can’t write a single exam well! I wonder if it’s some sort of disability, because I nail every practical session and a guy can’t ace a practical if he doesn’t know the theory right. I really think I have a learning disability, because teachers form KG to college has said the same thing.

4) I have no idea about my future. Once upon a time; I was sure I wanted to go for an MBA and had no idea what to do in the next five years. Now I know what to do in the next few years, but don’t know if I should go for an MBA or not. It’s like Life’s a journey, and I know only the path

3) I’ve got this knack for writing objective type questions. I once wrote the biology part of a scholarship exam when I hadn’t touched bio for two years .It was almost 100% guess work. And yet I got AIR 25 (no, it wasn’t an exam for 26 people !)

2) I used to be the extroverted meet-everyone-and-generally-have-fun kind of guy when I got into college. Now I feel like an old soul trapped in a young body, watching the frivolous and silly nature of my fellows. Maybe #8 has something to do with this

1) I absolutely think my friends are the reason for my existence in this world at all!
Here’s to you guys :)

Nice!!!!!!!

2005-11-08T03:41:00.000+05:30

You scored as James Bond, Agent 007. James Bond is MI6's best agent, a suave, sophisticated super spy with charm, cunning, and a license's to kill. He doesn't care about rules or regulations and somewhat amoral. He does care about saving humanity though, as well as the beautiful women who fill his world. Bond has expensive tastes, a wide knowledge of many subjects, and his usually armed with a clever gadget and an appropriate one-liner.

James Bond, Agent 007

96%

Batman, the Dark Knight

92%

Neo, the "One"

88%

Captain Jack Sparrow

88%

The Terminator

83%

El Zorro

79%

Maximus

71%

The Amazing Spider-Man

71%

Indiana Jones

71%

William Wallace

46%

Lara Croft

38%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

Me @Hogwartz

2005-11-08T03:30:00.000+05:30

I Actually had to take a tie breaker to choose b/w slytherin and gryffindor... but unlike a certain you know who, I Chose slytherin:D

You scored as Slytherin. You scored Slytherin, some say it's a good thing some might disagree, you have a very strong will to win and be the best. You don't mind hurting other people to get what you want, and probably don't mind telling someone what you think of them.

Gryffindor

83%

Slytherin

83%

Ravenclaw

54%

Hufflepuff

54%

HOGWARTS SORTING HAT!!!(PICS)
created with QuizFarm.com

My Life, Rated

2005-11-06T00:12:00.000+05:30

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	5.7
Mind:	6.1
Body:	5.1
Spirit:	6.7
Friends/Family:	2.3
Love:	1.4
Finance:	5.5
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Judgement Day

2005-11-02T04:06:00.000+05:30

Ever since I had spurned everyone's advice regarding the MS wheel mouse optical,and took a gamble on the iball laser, i had been wanting to see how my gamble paid off!so today, at duttan's place, my humble mouse squared off against two other mice, one twice and another thrice as expensive.thankfully, everyone agreed that mine was definetly better than the MS mouse (thank GOD! my hate for MS knows no bounds)but not quite upto the other mice .the main problem turned out to be the fact that my mouse works upto an inch in the air! most would think of that as a feature! not so in gaming! It prevented the mouse from working well at it's minimum sensitivity settings:( Otherwise all is great!

The iBall Laser Precise

2005-10-30T10:01:00.000+05:30

I've been playing around with my new mouse all day, even wrote a review of it:D read all about it! now i've gotta get back to making main project abstracts:(
God , i love that mouse!Even showstopper is doing a post on it:D

Lasers RULE!!!!!

2005-10-28T22:09:00.000+05:30

It all started after showstopper got himself a logitech MX 518...and SURAJ had an MX 510 all along which Duttan bought when suraj upgraded to a G5 laser, and my mouse meanwhile ,a lowly ball mouse started giving signs that the end was nigh....First of all, it's weapon switch sucked BIG time cos it had a trackball, not a wheel and switching was like playing a jackpot.... You spun the wheel and hoped you got the flak cannon.Tired of getting the same review that my pc was .." great sound ....bad mouse!"i couldnt have a 300 rupee mouse make a 75K system look bad can I? finally i resolved that I , too would get a new mouse, albeit one which i can afford , yet have the same things that its blue blooded brethren have!
the search led me to the I ball laser which despite having the same technology as suraj's *extremely* expensive mouse, is the cheapest of the lot(thanx to logtech, i got it much...much cheaper!)its got a 3 year warranty, hope i can trash it within that time:D

Suraj's Mice..Duttan owns the blue one now!

showstopper's mouse , the 518

MY old mouse!

my new one>:)

more moosic!

2005-10-26T22:10:00.000+05:30

Finally, with the series over and the sems well out of the way. It’s time for some well deserved R&R .Some free time minus family at home meant only one thing!
INSANE LEVELS OF MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!
I pushed my amp and speakers to their max…today and yesterday. And I did learn a lot about audio amplifier behavior(written more about it here). Heck…I pushed it till the LED’s on it which had lain dormant on them started to light up! All that electricity was blown up as mostly Linkin Park reanimation, with a fair sprinkling of Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson. I usually don’t listen to these …but these did seem like the ideal tracks to torture test an audio rig, and torture test it was indeed! Heck... At least I heard rock in a totally different way! Meanwhile my steady diet of classical and country music (read audiophile music) continues unabated with this week going to IL DIVO and Emmylou Harris

IL DIVO is the brainchild of Simon Cowell...the nice guy from “American Idol” and they really are quite different from anything I’ve heard commercially. Josh Groban seems to be the nearest approximation…but these guys are really different! To get an idea of how they sound like , Think of an opera singer boy band. Backstreet + Bochelli. Interestingly, the mix works quite well. Emmylou Harris is just plain country, and I just got a 2 CD anthology of her …Its quite nice actually, reminiscent of Dolly Parton style country, but with a sharper voice...

Im still looking for a good mouse , a five button and/or high precision optical mouse for about 700...Im still looking:(

my neighbour's new puppy

2005-10-16T14:36:00.000+05:30

Now Aint that cute!!!!

my Personality Disorders:D

2005-10-16T09:57:00.000+05:30

Personality Disorder Test Results

Paranoid	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Schizoid	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	62%
Schizotypal	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	46%
Antisocial	\|\|\|\|\|\|	22%
Borderline	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Histrionic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	78%
Narcissistic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	74%
Avoidant	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Dependent	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Obsessive-Compulsive	\|\|\|\|\|\|	22%

Take Free Personality Disorder Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

my DIY tape deck!

2005-10-16T02:48:00.000+05:30

Since I have a digital cam for some more time, ill be coming up with few more pics:)
the thing in the middle is my tape deck mechanism which i salvaged from(hehe! never mind!) and below it , the preamp+ re eq board. the PSU which powere it was made for an assignment:D. the thingy to the right is my soundcard hub which recieves the line level signal and performs all the cool stuff on it!

My world view

2005-10-15T23:32:00.000+05:30

i took this quiz cos i wanted to find out how my leanings were , and to be honest, I still have no idea:D

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative

94%

Existentialist

81%

Postmodernist

81%

Idealist

63%

Romanticist

63%

Fundamentalist

63%

Materialist

38%

Modernist

13%

What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com

check out the view from my room

2005-10-13T22:09:00.000+05:30

2005-10-12T06:40:00.000+05:30

I’ve been at home for two weeks now, doing nothing, except listening to music, one song in particular, Duran Duran’s ‘come undone’ over and over again. Credit goes to poison for reminding me of that song again. I’ve been laid back, listening over and over again, the words soothing a mind troubled by harsh words, the music soothing my ears and the vibrations from my subwoofer soothing my entire body.
To me a lot of things in a song matter to me, the instrumentation, the genre, the voice of the artist, the words. Sometimes I like a song because of the artist, or because the tune is an earworm. But this song, I like it ‘cos of the chord it struck with me.

try to stay blind, to the hope and fear outside

Who do you need?

Who do you love?

When you come undone......

Somehow it just feels right.

Life as usual

2005-10-04T23:27:00.000+05:30

Just when Youre Trying to rebound,life has a funny way of jumping in front of you and smacking you down.Today I found out that I have yet to clear a paper from s5...It just keeps getting better.First no tour and now this...I just cant wait to see whats next!

Lonely

2005-09-28T22:12:00.000+05:30

Everyone but my best friends seems to have left on a tour. It is weird to exist in a world which has been deprived of the “Usual people”. Though I felt that I would not miss the people who went; somehow it seems so lonely. Maybe my loneliness is a product of my sadness at being denied the same privilege by my parents or their sudden backtracking about the compensations. Yes I know they mean only well, but I just can’t help feeling blue. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and let’s see what happens!

How I am In lurve

2005-09-25T21:41:00.000+05:30

How You Are In Love

You take a while to fall in love with someone. Trust takes time.

You tend to give more than take in relationships.

You need your space and privacy. You don't like to be smothered.

You love your partner unconditionally and don't try to make them change.

You stay in love for a long time, even if you aren't loved back. When you fall, you fall hard.

How Are You In Love?

TAGS!

2005-09-25T04:05:00.000+05:30

Ashok Had tagged me to do this And since I have nothing better to do, Here goes:D
Seven Things I Plan to do before I die
Make my miniproject into a full fledged system
Buy/make the most insanely loud music system there is
Read, Comprehend, and make an informed comment in Frantic's blog
Get out of my house
Be insanely rich
Mod my dad’s old Panasonic Hi Fi and make it into a miniature MC PC
Take a look around , Stick my tongue out and say “In your face!...I’ve Lived longer than Y’all”
Seven Things I can do
Say the Darndest PJ’s
Stink Up the house
Be completely oblivious while I make an ass out of myself
Listen to music at insane levels
Listen endlessly To JIM REEVES (without falling asleep too!)
Blab on an on about the insane stuff I do
Wear Bermuda shorts in public

Stuff I can’t
Learn History (or by heart anything else for that matter)>:P
DRINK! (Or smoke for that matter)(I’ve got other addictions:D)
Listen to music too quietly or with too little fidelity
Get a pass in an odd semester
Understand particle Physics OR shrinks
Insult People (I’d rather be discreet about it)
Fake Stupidity (I’m a natural at that, It seems!)

Cliché Dialogues
Aliya/Machu/Other local male salutations
Kidilam/kalipp
Check out 10’o clock!!!!(Wink wink)
Happy!
Pinne(!/?/as appropriate)
Whoa!
Evil Laugh! (WAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA…….)

Things in the other sex which draw me in.
Frankness
The Eyes
A sense of (appreciation of) humor
Similar taste in music!
A certain joie de vivre
The Name
Trust

Female celebrities who I DROOL @
Zeenat Aman
Norah Jones
Charlotte Church
Catherine Zeta Jones
Antara Malli
Neve Campbell
Shania Twain

2005-09-21T23:46:00.000+05:30

He wandered in the darkness , lost, seeking the unseen.

Then he found it.

It overwhelmed him,drew him in, the light;
the source, he sought her,the warmth it brought,

He tried..............He lost.

Free, knowing no man, she was never to be his.

He felt the sweet release of darkness bearing down again.

Todays seminar

2005-09-20T23:55:00.000+05:30

Today we had quite a few seminars. I was entertained thankfully by a Sony k 508i with more games in it them my own pc :D but I sat through one of the more boring ones….I thought the invisibility cloak seminar was a bit non techie and had too much videos in it , but today we had one which sort of takes the cap. It was supposedly about the Tsunami detector. the guy who did it was supposed to have done with someone else...” someone else” got ditched in the last minute. To think I was going to have done my seminar with him!!!(Ouch!) The entire seminar was a bit too descriptive, with big words being dropped all along but nothing dealt with in detail. But the crowning glory of the seminar was a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong (boo!) video about the tsunami. To see the tsunami bash something up is fun indeed. But to see the entire half an hour before and after it is NOT! If the video had been in the least bit interesting…I would have put up, but no, It had to be drawn out…I tried to get duttan to fast forward it, but all I could see was him flailing his arms helplessly.

This blog is not entirely about this dude’s seminar. I know him well. Heck, I did a lot of stuff with this guy. But DUDE! If you plan to get somewhere in life, work hard, and don’t make everyone else do the work .and (if you’re lucky and if they do,) don’t get in their way. Your partners want the same aims as you. If only you had let your seminar partner do the work at least for you, BOTH of you might have been better off. I understand that you have your own problems to take care of. But so does everyone else. In a competitive environment, it just won’t be enough for you. Hope you reconsider your options and don’t feel bitter towards me. I’m just trying to help.

THE ATHAPOOKALAM

2005-09-18T05:49:00.000+05:30

I had blogged earlier about our onam celebrations...Heres the prize winner

Sid's speakers!

2005-09-18T04:51:00.000+05:30

I’m still recovering from my escapades during the trip to kovalam.Suffice to say that I was relatively less dressed in Kovalam, Veli and in between. Today I got to do a bit of what is, nowadays, called consultancy service. From my understanding of it, consultancy stands for the classic phrase “why do something when someone else can do it for you!” put into practice. Unfortunately, Sloth seems to be in vague these days and Indian consultancy companies are reaping the benefits.

Mine consultancy is of a different nature. Having owned and bought and made several ranges of equipment and as well as possessing a fetish for audio equipment, I’m a full fledged audio geek :>

Well all this would have been perfectly useless had I had friends who cared only for pipelines and cores and shader model 3.0 :| But there are people who do care if the sound coming out of their orators sounds like it came from a Tiffin box with two (or worse, one) speaker(s) inside it. My friend Siddharth is one of them .Even though he already had a labtec 2.1 pair, he felt that the sound was seriously lacking. He wanted to go a little louder. First to get considered was the creative inspire 2.1 series at Rs 1.6 K It was natural of him to think so. It is among the more affordable ones. The Altec Lansing ATP3 was at a good idea till we found out that it costs more than 3K:(The basic problem with satellite speakers is that they cannot defy the laws of physics which, simply put, say that a big speaker will be better than a smaller one. The only way to get around it is to use a more powerful amp which naturally pushes up the costs.

Sid was stuck in a dilemma between cost and sound. Then the Idea came! Stereo full range speakers! I had quite forgotten about them since I had gotten Ashok a pair to go with the amp I made for him. Sid was invited to his house and was duly blown away. Today we finally set out to grab Sid an amp and a pair of speakers. The first shop has a variety of boxes with no speakers in them .The guy at the shop claims to be able to get a pair of speakers ready at moments notice. I do believe him; after all, all it takes is to screw a pair of drivers onto a box. But the moment I rattle off the specs, (BOLTON/DAINTY brand woofers and a dome tweeter) he does some math in the air and comes up with a magic figure of approx 2k (for the speakers alone…) we jumped shop and went in search of ashok who was waiting where We had originally bought his setup. Turns out , they have not only his model (the mark III ) but its bigger and badder successor as well. The mark IV turns out to be the mark III with a bigger woofer (8” as opposed to 6”) and a correspondingly bigger cabinet. We try both models. Using a 60+60 RMS amplifier, the mark III distorts near the max, but not much serious bass is forthcoming. We try the Mark IV which also distorts but the nature of the distortion is different. It is evident in the dimming of the amp indicator lights that the amp is getting overloaded. We present Sid with a choice of systems. One in which the speaker is the limiting factor and one in which the amp is .Sid chose wisely. Soon we were on our way to Sid’s house with a pair of 8” monsters. Sid was unfortunately, still skeptical. There were a few initial hiccups –for instance, when I switched on the PC, the monitor was a lovely shade of purple! Damn magnetic fields….thank god Sid’s monitor had a built in degausserJIf not…he would have been screwed then and there. It was only when I played Richard Marx’s “Right here waiting “ and got the windows to dance that I saw that smile on Sid’s face .He is now one very happy dude! And he has reason to be with 120W RMS and TWO 8” woofers , he is better off than with ANY creative sub-sat combo…Personally I feel that the sub sat combo is a conspiracy by manufacturers to sell us less and make us pay more for it .It’s so obvious. But then again there are those countless hassled audiophiles whose better halves won’t let them beautify their living rooms with eight or six large boxes. For them I guess the sub sat combo is the only alternative. But for everyone else who thinks of only satellite speakers when it comes to PC audio, DON’T! Good sound is cheaper than you think!

T7 puts the T in TEAMWORK

2005-09-09T22:09:00.000+05:30

My seminar being over,(yeah yeah it was a stupendous performance which would have been flawless if it hadn’t been for my last slide with a pre recorded Applause. which kind of gate crashed while I was still on my penultimate slide.. it was the ultimate….even the ever critical DUTTAN said that it was ok)anyway. Special thanks go out to Aravind, Shibu, Athul, Dinup , Johnson and others for making their vehicles available to me, to abhishek for lending me his 4.1 creative FPS speakers (they truly are great)and to duttan for doing the demos and repairing my Pc more than once! Since that was Ok My heart is lighter by several tons. I stayed behind to make our Entry for the College Onam festival Atham

The problem with men in general and engineers in particular is that we are very very accurate. The first attempt on drawing the atham is done in adobe Photoshop. That fails.Dreamweaver flash is summoned to help. Unfortunately Even its array of graphics fail the demanding precision required by the creators. Finally help comes in the form of SOLIDWORKS a package that is apparently used by our mech brethren to create technical drawings. Soon the working copy is ready.

Now the real world Implementation. The flowers are sourced from Tamil Nadu in three huge bakets.There is around 1K worth of flora in there. Then the actual drawing. The scene of that is one of great joy and merrymaking. All the engineers get on the floor, clear the tables and whip out Twine and chalk, Music and liquid refreshments also make an appearance;) soon the basic structure is all laid out. Then comes the fine detail. Each of them is constructed using a bit of twine and chalk as fine compasses. Ellipses are also drawn. Remember all the while that we are engineers of electronics lineage to whom all this has been alien for three years. Arguments break out as all arcs are not touching and some don’t align up with the reference Grid. The group decides to do the fine filling in work freehand. The fist time goes ok...But some slight faults remain. They are corrected. The only spanner in the works is that fatigue and the liquid refreshment are taking their toll on the focus of the artists. The second version is quite not as good as the second. The third turns out even worse. Tempers are none the better. Finally we come to a consensus to stick with the original. its almost 8pm in college. I take off for home leaving the hostelites to stay back and prepare the petals. (Yeah no girl involved in the construction of this one…their use is to be purely decorational.)the next day dawns .the night shifters say that many a tale was told and many an expletive delivered during the long working night. It also was an occasion of male bonding. I shrug it off and go on with the preparations of the rest of it. Rules stipulate only natural ingredients are used .due to this all sorts of colored matter find their way in. Like scraped beetroot for example. It’s all legal of course. All the men are working their asses off while the women stand pretty and Do the P.R. soon the thing is ready and the ornamental ladies installed for the final evaluation by the clients. Meanwhile the traditional “kaduvakkali“ makes its appearance with its own bunch of merrymakers .

We move onto the traditional banquet set for us by our semi benevolent administration. I eat the first- The first guy in the first bench in the first serving. (It helps if you’ve been doing your time in the kitchen and are connected to the guys serving the meal)after that there is a small spot of relaxation while the news of the meal being ready travels to the classes .Time to enter into PR mode ourselves. Chat up all our friends in other branches (especially ones with camera phones, digicams and camcorders to ensure ones place in photographed history) and share the suffering of those who came in late and wont be eating for a while. Meanwhile the results are announced .not third….not second………..but FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Much much more partying ensues. Fake surprise expressions, jumps and howls of joys group hugs even kisses! Back in class. More photos are taken with the atham as background. Then the creators (us) stake our place ON it leading to it getting ruined. From then on there is no mercy!!!!!!!!!

Flower petals become lethal weapons where a holi like event, only with flower petals and rye instead of dye ensues thoroughly filling our faces hair and even underpants:D

That was one blast!!!! Now to return home and for some well deserved rest.
EDIT: STOP PRESS it turns out we won the vadamvali too!
We are the champions..................................muahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Rain and the art of Auto rickshaw maintenance

2005-09-03T09:15:00.000+05:30

Tuesday being my seminar I had gotten around to a friends house to borrow his creative 4.1 speakers for my seminar. The job which I had assumed to be only a few minutes job got compounded due to the appearance of a few dignitaries. The net result being me getting to my friends house in Pettah.

The journey itself was quite boring involving only A flat in the bus I was going in and a LIFT in an auto rickshaw (full credit to duttan) only when we got out of his house when we spotted a full complement of policemen and pouring rain. DUTTANS attempts to capture an auto were rather becoming exhausting after all the autos which stopped were shouted off by the policemen. Finally, I got one and set off. For a journey which shouldn’t have lasted longer than a few minutes got extraordinarily complicated by an idiot who sped by the auto soaking me, the driver, and flooded out his engines. That man tried in vain by trying to dry his air filter. No help giving up, he hailed another auto and I was on my way.

Alas, my misfortune with vehicles wasn’t over yet. This one also ground to a halt soon and this man gave up easily. He simply got out and said that’s it. On to the next auto. This guy was quite older and listened to my tales of the two earlier ones laughing away at those idiots who couldn’t do anything. His own knowledge was soon put to the test when HIS machine also stalled. I volunteered to help so as to make my journey faster. He headed first for the culprit which he had been saying had claimed everyone else, a wet sparkplug. Our hero apparently carried one. And the offending part was duly replaced. Only it didn’t start. He was getting rather impatient as was I then he took something else off and started wiping it squeaky clean then he tried again Oh joy! The damn thing started, only to die away soon. With an all knowing look on his face, he was heard working on the air filter. Soon we were up and running and on our way to east fort. Only god would have known that the bus would delay me further. Yet I finally got home 3 hours later than schedule.

WHAT DID I LEARN FROM TODAY?

# Some auto drivers are positive geniuses they may be evil geniuses, but geniuses nevertheless..

# All dignitaries ought to be jailed in Delhi. The scum of the earth should not come into contact with the earth itself # KEEP YOUR ****ing Mouth shut !

the last few days

2005-08-28T09:34:00.000+05:30

Well my ADL connection has been acting up and I havent been able to touch blogger for a few days..I am typing this within a window I got...Hope it stays .else this is an update..Seminar season is in the air and my seminar ahs been postponed yet again...I will do it but it seems I might not have the luxury of a saturday.and that wraps up the sound ...hope I'll be able to pulls something off. at least looking for stuff on dsp helped me hack my onboard sound

Happy(?) Independence Day

2005-08-15T22:07:00.000+05:30

Apparently today was the day India gained Independence. Thus the celebration of independence day. However I did not feel today as different to any other day . I did not feel like wishing anyone " happy independence day" maybe it was the pressure of the exams coming, maybe it was my dissapointment at my ISP not giving free 'net today like they supposedly did last year...Somehow I just did not feel moved .Dont take me wrong, I do love my country very much and am very proud of it...But somehow, I dont think we are really free yet .Maybe I dont understand the value of the freedoms I have already, or maybe I take it for granted, or maybe because I wasnt there when India did become free.I felt that Independence day has lost its relevance to people of my generation.Dont deny it ,apart from the flags and the ceremonies, who felt glad that india was indeed free and wanted to celebrate for the sake of that alone?Maybe these questions are mine alone.Maybe my fellow indians living abroad might celebrate it because it makes them feel closer to home.But over here, to me , It is just another day

The code of the geeks pronounces me as thus

2005-08-14T22:18:00.000+05:30

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GE d+@>--- s+:++>- a-- C+++>++++ U? P+? L>+ E? W++>+++ !N o? K-? w--->--- O-- M- V? PS+ PE+++ !Y !PGP- t+>+++ 5 X>++ R tv++ b+>++ DI+>++ D+>++ G e++>++++ h r+>* !y-- ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

our miniproject

2005-08-06T03:34:00.000+05:30

the details of how the kinematic intuitive control interface a.k.a the om hreem volume control was designed has been published on the tech blog.

JOB CROSSROADS

2005-08-06T02:59:00.000+05:30

I have always thought that choosing a career path would be a piece of cake. till today i had thought that my place would be in infosys. Today i learnt that This company is hiring. I had seen its ads last year and as i didnt see any this year , thought that they had finished recruiting.Now it seems that i may have a chance after all .I do not claim that i will get in.. but i feel there may be a chance. I really have to think about it. People might think i am mad to think of leaving a 16~18k job for a 13~16k job. but i feel that it is the better job. just knowing that what i am doing is right makes me feel better. but is it right i do not know

two women for whom I'm all ears

2005-08-06T02:21:00.000+05:30

Madeline Peyroux and Astrud gilberto.. two women from two eras ..and yet i feel compelled to listen to them both. madeline has a much smokier voice which sort of seems to build excitement while astrud's seems to be more soothing. I have been listening to these women all week and hence this post . such beautiful voices............those who dont like jazz sure are missing a lot :)

The kinda day blogs are made of

2005-08-01T22:31:00.000+05:30

It has been a long time since I posted. Frankly it has been a time of sleep sleep and more sleep .And the added load of a seminar doesn’t make ones task any easier. However, I can’t complain since my topic for the seminar is one very close to my heart, Audio processing. A lot of my friends say (and have had the experience of) seminars are boring. But mine…hehe...it is as they say…going to be one big demo:D…I have lined up everything that is now current in audio…Dolby digital EX, DTS ES, a whole bunch of surround sound formats as well as a kickass soundcard(mine….who else’s:P) and eight speakers(with TWO SUBWOOFERS) to show them the stuff good sound is made of. I for one don’t think anyone will be asleep during my seminar.

Onto something different… my doing my miniproject seems to be paying off. I got to visit the regional research labs on the invitation of a scientist who is doing research on ceramic semiconductors. I went there along with Johnz who was equally impressed. He wants two guys(no gals) specifically from SCT(no ,no one from CET please :P last time he took some one from CET it was when some guy really high up made him… he feels people from SCT are better for the job) he he maybe taking SCT was not such a bad idea after all:->. But I don’t know if I will get it. The decision has not yet been made who will be going on this. Live projects are hard to get and I hope there are not much problems.

Meanwhile classes are going on like no other branch. The girls having labs means that attendance is sparse. Nevertheless guys do need attendance. So they all show up. But the problem is that if the teacher sees enough people she might actually be inclined to start teaching. So the solution is, just keep 5 people in the class. Then the teacher will just take attendance and not teach. One of the guys excuses himself and leaves, and another guy gets in and gets attendance. Then one more guy leaves and another comes in thus almost everyone gets attendance while maintaining the illusion of an empty class.

Meanwhile, having received attendance for four periods while having attended none. I left college to get my resume couriered to SHREDS. Thanks to the underpass inauguration, roads are closed from ayurveda college:-L.. I start walking from there onto the GPO to get a postcard and then onto BLUE DART which was, a friend had told me, was nearby. The place was impressive; apparently it was a DHL franchisee, with a DHL truck and all. I go inside to find no one at reception. There are a lot of people talking about, but no one to talk to. Finally one of the men hanging around comes up to me and asks what can I do sir? Being a first timer, I reluctantly get my envelope and say that I have to send it to Cochin. HE looks at it like a watchmaker and then quietly, says 170. I beg his pardon and he repeats emphatically, “ONE-AH HUNDRED AND-AH SEVENTY-AH-RUPEES-AH.” Sheepishly, I beat I hasty retreat. One more loyal customer for DHL. Especially since UPS has performed so badly, delivering our sensor module AHEAD of schedule, causing us to lose one more reason to delay our project :P . Anyway, farther away in statue I chance upon a small board which says “professional couriers” pointing to an incredibly small flight of stairs, I decide to go in .Further twists and turns awaited me, with professional -> boards directing me. I wonder how the people there fight the claustrophobia while in the corridors. Eventually I find the place and lighter by a sum of eleven rupees and visibly much happier, venture out. Only to be met by the empty roads which I had only been too pleased with while I had been walking all this time. Confronted with the problem of finding transportation home, there seems to be none of our management’s buses around. Apparently, the ceremony for inaugurating the underpass had caused pretty much all the traffic to be cut off.

Continuing with my walking, I cross the venue of the inauguration which is now filled with kids curious to see the underpass (and the free helium balloons too) and onto the flyover. In the flyover, I get stuck behind four giggling girls who were not altogether bad looking. Unfortunately, I tend to give those types a wide berth and move to the other side of the road. Unfortunately, this litter seems to be all over the road causing me to switch sides of the road countless time. Frustrated, I realize that maybe I too should make the most of the situation. It is not after all everyday that one gets the palayam flyover all to oneself (and four girls ;)) other than at the way of the cross procession at Good Friday. I also start onto the centre of the road and enjoy myself. Any other day, I would have been under traffic long ago. Then one of the group ahead looks back followed by the others in succession. Judging by the looks on their faces, I would say that they had not grasped the concepts of public roads till now.

I get into a superfast bus, the only one around, which I caught at a traffic light (apparently the only places they stop, as I later discovered). Now that I have gone by one, I now know why my friends at T.N colleges leave their pulsars at home when they decide to travel interstate, because KSRTC busses are way faster. I had no idea that the long haul KSRTC bus driver was a breed apart from his brethren who lug the city buses around. Added to the fact that he drove fast, and that the roads were clear already, I was at my destination within the time I might have taken to walk to the next bus stop. Albeit at double the regular rate and infinitely more than what I would have paid (0 rupees btw…coz I have a concession :P) Hats off to them .May they see many happy miles under their wheel, these long haul drivers.

Now that was exhilarating! My kind of adventure, at my pace, taken one at a time

Finally!!!

2005-07-21T01:48:00.000+05:30

Your soul is vengeful.
That is the driving feeling you have in your
life right now. Someone fooled/betrayed you
really bad and now you are after them to make
them pay. Your heart and mind has been
blackened by your hate for this person and it's
on the line obsession. You need to let go, but
that is something you just are incapable of
doing. Betrayal is something you don't take
very lightly and you can easily make new
enemies. People often see you as a cold and
harsh person who may be in need of anger
management, but they don't know what you're
going through and can't understand. On the
bright side; you don't give up that easy when
you've decided to do something. Hopefully you
will have your revenge, if it is within reason,
and get your honour and dignity back.

How is your soul?

I Finally got a dude ...when all the others are females....Finally... I have mastered the art of beatin pschometric tests..>:) hope it wont ruin my job chances tho....:-s

Workin' Man

2005-07-18T14:52:00.000+05:30

I have been quite involved with my first project for the past one week. It involves cutting edge technology, back breaking work and crushing deadlines. Yet we have managed to work our way out of everything.NO, I DID NOT JOIN INFY YET.. if tats what you mean. Wat I have been involved in is the creation of a magical tool, so to speak. Me and Frantic(kalip?) are involved in it. I am typing this from his house. So far we have had 9 hours of sleep for a total of sevn days. The rest has been spent in the morning running from pillar to post searching for exotic components and for getting things done.The nights have been spent hunched over circuit boards with a sodering iron or a multimeter. Yet total success eludes us. That doesn’t mean we wont reach it.We are only a few steps away form it.TO have achieve great things, work hard we must. Look forward to a more complete description on my tech blog…sorry OUR tech blog:D

GRRRR

2005-07-16T01:13:00.000+05:30

Your Blogging Type is Commanding and Larger Than Life

In blogging circles, you tend to rise to the top with your take charge personality.
You are driven to solve problems, connect bloggers, and be an influential force.
You are also motivated to keep your blog fresh and high quality.
Your hard work has paid off - you set a high standard for other bloggers to aspire to.

What's Your Blogging Personality?
even this one shows a chick...>:P

THAT IS IT!!!!

2005-07-13T01:41:00.000+05:30

You are a Ninja.
You are like a samurai gone bad. The good side
is no longer interesting you and feel that
darkness is where you belong. Though you may
think you are the evil one, you're not. Because
deep inside there is still that little glimpse
of who you once were. You don't like to
associate with people that much and keep away.
In your mind they are ignorant and not so
interesting anyway. That means you are a lonley
person who don't trust people, and you have
really no desire to do so either. Life is a big
pain and annoyance for you and you aren't quite
sure on how to handle it. Other people see you
as mysterious and secretive, and that is
probably right.

Main weapon: Daggers and throwing
stars
Quote: "I hate people. People make
me pro-nuclear" -Margaret Smith
Facial expression: Frown

This is it!!!! the last time I will probably take an online quiz. I keep getting stuck with female characters....The last time it was trinity in the quiz which character from the matrix are you. And now this . They have gotten the content sorta ok..but jeeez look at the pic.I did try once more and came up with revenge killer...but i guess like with psychometry, the first one is the right one

Some people......

2005-07-10T08:18:00.000+05:30

“Quotable quotes [May] had Ellen Degeneres saying “we use 10% of our brains, Imagine how much we could accomplish if we used the other 60%.”These figures don’t add up to 100 %.Either the first figure should be 40% or the second one 90 %.”

This is a letter that was published in this months readers digest. Apparently the reader who sent this in didn’t get the gist of what was being said. Sometimes we all do. EVEN I have (top ten insults for physicists….no6. Yo momma's so fat she contradicts a heliocentric solar system. .but this one I had to get frantic’s help in figuring that one out.)But in my life as a semi professional raconteur I have come across my own share of people who can well…. , be the classic light bulbs. Remember the joke in which the crazy guy threatens a group of people with an AIDS stained pin….all the people give into his demands except a sardar. He gets pricked before the loon makes off. Asked why he took a threat like this, the sardar smugly replies….” I am wearing a condom!!!!!!” No, the sardar is not the butt of this post. Most people would have groaned and went their way. No…not our hero. (Yes finally our hero makes his entrance. No, I don’t think u people know him). He uses his brain (!).And asks me…”How can THAT be???? He didn’t poke him…ummmm….you know…THERE!!!! What COULD I reply to that. What would you?

Removed

2005-07-06T22:57:00.000+05:30

The same fate as the previous blog has befallen this one.Maybe next time I'll take my foot out of my mouth

Sorry for the self censorship

2005-06-30T22:35:00.000+05:30

I had posted this out of sheer frustration.I This was a result of my thinking that one's freedom of expression was paramount .But I have come to understand that despite their lofty status , there are more important things in life .Like friendship.And that what I may shoot off my mouth may have an adverse effect on someone else.Thus It is thus that I have chosen to remove this post.

The Men And Their Machines

2005-06-27T22:12:00.000+05:30

Almost everyone wants a bike and a mobile. Me… I want neither. For the price I pay in terms of my freedom is disproportionately larger. Thus I have to come to rely on the large number of my friends who do have bikes. The experience has been wide and varied but it is an experience I would trade for any other (maybe some …. ;)…)but most of my friends have bikes and me not having one, but because of frequent lifts and the very fact of not having a bike has caused me to acquire a rather substantial third person knowledge of bikes in general. Here is my evaluation of my experiences with them.

First to start off with, one I will NOT forget. ..Fly... The ride I hitched with him was as short as it was eventful. To describe it, it would be like getting shot out of cannon and onto a brick wall. Zero to eighty something and back to zero before I could say ohmygawwwwwdddd! ‘Twas my first experience on a pulsar and “welcome to the pulsar experience” which I managed to catch from him…I won’t forget. Add to that the incredibly under representative Speedo of the pulsar. I was thinking why ,it is barely at 9 o’ clock, then why the hell does it feel so blindingly fast the my eyes bought to my notice that what was at 9 o clock was not 30 k’s but in fact 60!!!.Despite all this he was a safe rider. Though fast, he didn’t take any risks. At least with me on board.

And of course though now back to four wheels, ->DUTTAN<- who for a short period of time had his hands on a piece of red pulsar which could turn many green. Extremely loud, excruciatingly fast and verry thirsty it would have reduced ->DUTTAN<-‘s real life ping but in retrospect it would have reduced ->DUTTAN<-‘s real life too :D. Having been a regular on it, it has won my respect; but not as a piece of point A to point B transport. To put it simply, he drives it like I play UT (he he).but he deserves credit for having mastered riding that beast coz not many people have! He drives aggressively. A lot of bikers speed for the sake of speeding. ->DUTTAN<- accelerates as if he was the only one of the lot having a sufficiently fast bike (which he unarguably does) and can’t wait to get out of a bunch of friggin 20kmph LOS3RS!

Me …I would rather go at 40-50…it is a habit acquired from my dad who would go at a steady 45 even if it was an RX 100 or a crux( both Yamahas….he’s a fan!). I’m not in a hurry to go anywhere! I’ve got friends haven’t I ?

Then comes Stryker. I’ve gotten only one lift from him and he is a fairly common type .The type exemplified by the Harley-Davidson motto “Live to ride & Ride to live “, Apparently once he went out to buy milk (on his bike of course) and came in one and a half hours (and an equivalent number of miles later).since, his quota of miles has been cut and his riding is like his net connection. Fast, lots of it (relatively), but still very much limited. My experience of him…well it was on the road near the Vanchiyoor Bridge, with the road parallel to the railway track. Having turned the corner, Stryker was greeted with the sight of a wide open road aided by a decline. I remember hearing “ aaah what a nice road” being said before the hard acceleration and rapid gear changes which I have come to associate with a phenomenon called DRAG ( no not as in drag queen (lol) but as in drag race ) I had to remind him that towards the end , he was running out of road. To which he slowed down(ME : PHEW!! ; STRYKER :too bad there wasn’t a train!!!) anyways around the corner, we’re greeted with a road that is as diminutive as the one preceding it was wide . And there is a car coming at us. He proceeds as if the car isn’t there .It is just like the iceberg hitting the titanic. The car moves verry close yet doesn’t hit I actually think the danger has passed when suddenly comes the realization (WATCH OUT!!!! SIDE MIRROR INCOMING!!) He does what can be best described as a dodge …..It is after all what comes naturally to him. He was last seen missing a turn when he was too busy racing with Sid. And calling back 15 minutes later asking where the hell he was and where he was supposed to be, and where everyone else had gone.

This brings us to Sid. What I’ve seen of Sid is more by hearsay “did you hear, Sid broke his arm” or Sid’s own home videos and legends of Sid’s mastery of a shogun which makes ->DUTTAN<-‘s pulsar look positively pristine. A ride which I hitched with him went off without a hitch with the possible exception of him leading Stryker astray (mentioned earlier)

…………..AND THE WINNER IS ………………..

…..poison a.k.a 47 a.k.a the butcher a.k.a AC a.k.a what all else! Dude if you had been reading on getting distressed about your not getting mentioned here here’s happy vindication. I understand the point of this post was not to choose a winner but once in a while I can’t but help feel like being a judge in a contest. Of all the people I’ve been hitching rides with his seems to be the most consistent, safe and involving. He won’t over speed unless we get out of his house 5 minutes late already ; and even then he is not aggressive .He is not perfect .I acknowledge facts like the problems he had with the elusive 3^rd to 4^th shift on DUTTAN’s machine. But, I‘d hitch a ride with him any day and I’ve hitched most of my rides with him anyway. I’ve known his machine ever since he acquired it and the RTO thrust upon him a KL01 AD reg (while he had been hoping for an AC ;) While this judgement might make me seem positively pedestrian, remember, I am just one lost lift away from being one :D
As an added footnote I guess due to the nature of the title I guess we’ll have to include frantic too. He doesn’t have a 2 wheeled ride but seems to be an ace with his m800. I’ve heard of some risky adventures of him in that car. But I wasn’t there and I can’t comment. But he does seem too smug in his knowledge of driving (having heard to no end about his views on driving) my experience of driving is based entirely on NFSU2 and that gives me zilch abilities to evaluate him. Would any among us... (Duttan?) Care to evaluate him?

To conclude I think I have been fair to everyone concerned and given an impartial evaluation. 47 being my best friend and neighbour is pure coincidence and has no bearing on my judgement. If you feel you have been left out or that my evaluation is wrong, Give me a ride today! (Or any time I might want one)

I must be getting absent minded

2005-04-17T00:38:00.000+05:30

DAMN! I forgot to post this one!
Excess studying(!) and information overload has started to make my head resemble my HDD more and more . For those technophobes, that means I'm losin' my memory. Seriously.I got home one day with a feeling that I was missing something. Turned out , I t was my sister who I was supposed to have picked up from tution.MAN! talk about forgetting! pens, books,... umbrellas even ! okay .But your own sister!!!!!! Another day I walked home in the drenching rain.when I got home, there was an umbrella in my bag which one of my friends had given me earlier. And then last weekI forgot that the first exam was in the morning... If _>DUTTAN<- hadnt called I would have missed out on that.Further ,in one exam. I submitted my answer paper without writing my name in it.
I think this is getting out of hand.Hope I wont walk out one day without my underpants...Or even worse...my pants.

Worship ME :P

2005-04-15T00:25:00.000+05:30

This was going to be a rant about my parents.........

2005-03-21T00:34:00.000+05:30

.........but my sis found out and threatened to squeal>:P
Anyone who feels my sis violated my fundamental freedoms feel free to comment about it here!
Meanwhile............
In other news... me and ->Duttan<- almost got run over by a ghost bus.... NO!...It wasn't a translucent ancient bus with a truckload of souls wailing wooo hooo(ulp!) This was an ordinary KSRTC type...the one you and me travel in....We were going to his house when the bus we were going in was passing the vikas bhavan depot when ...What do we percieve....A bus exiting the depot onto the road into front of us...The driver pulled a Hard stop...(our driver silly!!) but the other bus dint stop...no It went onto hit the wall opposite before it stopped The driver of our bus got down to see if the other driver was ok ( and Give him a piece of his mind I guess when....:-o...NO DRIVER!!!!! That beast had somehow gotten out of the garage on its own power and gotten onto the road...Thanfully we escaped by the skin of our teeth! Duttans survival instinct..(which keeps him alive in several UT matches ) must be responsible! I was left with a nagging doubt that if it had been me alone somehow you may not have been reading this blog:( so next time you see a fast empty bus....*eery silence* ...see if it has a driver!!!

We went , We SAW!!!!!...and We came back

2005-03-06T09:35:00.000+05:30

Finally a day worth blogging about...MBT crossroads...a last ditch effort by us to forget about our impending doom in series tests..However it ended up rather reinforcing the theme bcoz of the frequent supply's:D
no output...:(..waaaaaaaaah!
but the first thing we noticed in mbt was...hmmm *ahem*
think our vernacular will do a better job
ningalarinjo?
mar baseliosil
charakkukal nira nirayaayi vannallo
baseliosile...aliyanmaarku...
vaayunokkan...lorry kanakkinu charakkukal!!
:D
any approvals from those who were thr??(anyone?)

Anyway...had enough of that....but hehe ...lost royally in EVERYTHING! Me and MJ were the official sct tele team.. we *ahem* participated in a lot of stuff..apparenly manu won third in debate...funny thing is only his dad knows that...top secret..even the organisers dont kno tht..dont tell anybody tht ok..But met a lot of pepl... I didn't know I knew so many ;-)we wrapped up with the la persona finals where despite me knowing 5/6 finalists only one won:(..but the high point of all related to an incident involving a vegetable known as padavalangaa:))...also met a looong lost frnd from lmc . only one more long lost frnd left,Mahesh varma...doin civil in nss or sn clg...hmmm if anyone knows him...let me kno...first year in sct togethr..

HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!

2005-02-28T22:58:00.000+05:30

Since that eventful day a lot of shit has happened.....I mean SHIT!!!! My dad the horticulturist, in his quest for ever more orchid blooms had unleashed on us a whole truckload of...guess what?...yup...you guessed right...aka manure...natural fertilizer etc...While I do acknowledge that the blooms are indeed beautiful, do we have to bear this???hmmmpph I guess every rose ...errr... orchid has it's thorns or ummm... never mind that:D

Hum honge kamyaab!

2005-02-23T23:40:00.000+05:30

And the last problem is also taken care of...Thankfully there are guys who suck more than I do @ UT....So bwahahahaaaaaa again!

Blah Blah....

2005-02-23T23:33:00.000+05:30

Great victory ! Joy and celebration...Then the ultimate defeat..another victory...more mundane stuff and a good ending! NO! This is not some lame movie plot! This is my today in a nutshell. My first blog got great*yaaay!*reviews. That being the joy part .Now to the ultimate defeat- Got thrashed by ->DUTTAN<- in UT 30 to 1 and (ohhh the shame!!!) 30 to -2:(( It was horrible ! The only consolation was that neither he nor I were playing seriously...He just wanted to kill time (and ended up killing a lot more in the bargain!)And I...just wanted to have a round with the champ (He and I usually occupy complementary time slots...so we don't meet on the net a lot...) He says that in Me Tech.... There is a technical term for what happened! Heh heh (No ! I dont want to say it..if you want to find out...ask any regular there! But you sure ain't gettin it from my mouth!)Then after a dose of scarce sleep, Went to college where the mini project labs were in order.Thankfully got our piece of innovation to work ( Innovation, that's what worries us ! When you try to do something yourself the whole world is on your shoulders! I am only one electronics student . There is only so much I can do! If only my fellow three Engineers were there(we were missing one...Oh D'Aravind....oh D'Aravind...Where art thou...?) Then onto two tech support calls, one for a friend Who wanted me to fix one of my products ".....If only I'd known you would screw me like this.I'd never have spent so much money on it!!!" But for his friends..Auster's stuff is guaranteed lifetime!Is that ok guys?heh heh!Now for the second one...It was more of a help out...Can you believe the lame stuff they Put on motherboards these days..Now he too is enjoying the divine music albeit at a lesser scale!>:)

Feel the force weakening! Must get loud music!

2005-02-22T22:13:00.000+05:30

Aargh...While most are complaining about too much sound ,here's someone who is being denied his share of ear splitting music! No, this does not involve crude public adress systems assaulting the senses! This is one finely built Neighbour killing machine which is sadly performing vastly under its rated 5 kw output:D.If I were to nudge it slightly towards its sweet spot...I would hear a wail from below...Damn hypersensitive younger sisters! if only we could geta law passing younger siblings from being so annoying *sigh* the world would have been such a better place!

Meanwhile I try to find a way to bypass the problem..a cascade of late night mode filters,loudness filters, DSP's ...nothing seems to work! "..........What do you mean,minimum volume???,I can barely hear you!NOW SHUT THAT 'THING' OFF BEFORE I TOSS IT DOWN PERSONALLY!SURELY SOME DAY I'M GONNA..."(Dad of Auster...in one of his better moods:)

I pray that day won't come to pass when me and my system will be parted:((.But for now I'll have to join the ranks of the lesser Mortals and listen to Linkin park rant like they were whispering!!! Thankfully I still have my dual vibrator headphones, my only consolation. Now to find a neck that can support those divine sounding monstrosities all night!

It works!

2005-02-20T01:37:00.000+05:30

At last.....My latest creation is completed!!!!!!!! Bwahaahahahaa!

About Me

2005-02-20T01:28:00.000+05:30

MY first post.....Hope it works!!