A change of season...

As my internship is coming to an end I couldn't help but notice so much is going to change around me in the next few days... to begin with I changed my playlist. These 120 odd songs have been companion throughout my stay in Bangalore, since there was no other source of media.It was mixed blend with all the genres from chut Hip-Hop to O Palanhaare. But like everything else even this has to go as they have been taken over by 1.5 GB of happy music from Charlie. The waking up every morning to wait for VVP will be taken over the sleeping till 12 in the insti rooms. Routine testing work will be replaced by routine vellapanti which is always most welcome. But change is hardly pleasant... The freedom I have enjoyed in Bangalore is unlike I have experienced either back home or in Goa. There was a sense of responsibility along with the privilege of freedom. Tasted for the first time in my life exactly how difficult to spend your own hard earned money. Learned how a loner can help another loner to not be alone anymore.

But change is important, like the playlist. It undoubtedly contained my most favorite songs, still it was getting on my nerves. Familiarity breeds contempt you know. Just as the songs were changed the whole setup around me has to be changed. For many one pleasant change might be that I will stop blogging coz there won't be net facilities back in Goa. There will be new people to meet (I hope the 2008 batch has some delicious candy), new friends to make. And new things to learn

Things I have learnt bcoz of PS2

Here is the list of things I have learn during my 5 month long stay in Bangalore.

1. Do not hesitate to start a conversation with a complete stranger, it helps to know people. Dump the conversation if the person is a dooche-bag.

2. Try to get a ride to office, buses in Bangalore suck ass.

3. Do not mess with the cafeteria guys, he is your "annadaata" while u r at PS.

4. Keep in touch with the randomly made new friends, if they r employed and well to do, u might get a free lunch/dinner :P. \marwadi/

5. If you do not have work , read up for placements or just for the sake of knowledge. Wiki can be much more usfull than u imagine.

6.Make Linkidin Contacts.

7. Do not add colleagues on Gtalk, coz yur status messages will be mostly abt how bad yur ps station is.

8. Bit of free stationary is not going to hurt anyone.

9. The quality of eye candy in Bangalore is really really good, I hope u have a sweet tooth. I do :D

10. Visit Java City(Church Street), Indian Coffee House(MG road), and A2B(CMH rd), ISKON before you leave Bangalore.

11. The maid will not come everyday, even if u paid her well. So make sure you have extras.

12. Land-lords are bastards/bitches.....

13.Money saved is money earned.

14. Go to expensive cafes only if u r with a chick, otherwise u r just a retard.
I was i know .. i know..

15.Meet more and more people everyday.. make new friends and never regret.

16. After all thsi if u still have time, wotk on yur PS project

Another anology...

CPU time or CPU usage is the amount of time a computer program uses in processing central processing unit (CPU) instructions, as opposed for example to waiting for input/output operations. The CPU time is often measured in clock ticks or in percentage of the capacity. It is used as a point of comparison for CPU usage of a program. Each program tries to get as much processing time possible to get it's work done and free itself from it's responsibilities. Then there are the evil programs which try to grab all the processing power and slow down your system. At any instant of time if one sits down and takes a careful look, he/she will realise that there are a bunch of unnecessary programs running in the back ground slowing down the system. If you carefully analyze most of these processes are not required for sustenance of the system and most of the work can be done without them as well.
Still they are run in the background, just hoping to be used someday, by some random thread or process. I have been doing a lot of CPU load testing down at my company in PS, and each thing you add to your OS slows you down, each extra unused module/ driver slows it down. A good system always decides what is best for itself and then prioritises as required.

Now people don't beat me up for my yet another weird analogy, I hope that you will be able to share my insight in to this little idea. Everything we do in life makes us think (well not dope and hash coz that is supposed to not let you think), it occupies a small part of our brain , it may be running in our mind all day long or in sudden bursts. Some of these thoughts which keep you occupied are just pure evil , coz they pull you down. Some of these can be

Guilt : Oh I should have give my best shot, why did I hold back. I shouldn't have said that, jack ass I am.

Hate: How could he say/do something like that, bloody %&^%*()^)&(_*_

Overburden : I need to get a six pack and do well in exams, get placed, get a girl, be a good person, help the poor, go to temple.

Worry : Will I get a good university? Will I get placed? Will my paper get published? Will she say YES ? Is mess gonna suck today as well?

Then there are the good thoughts like :

Eagerness : When you takes pains and plan something for a friend.

Satisfaction : Your 2000 line code finally is debugged after countless hours of labour and it gives a small cute little output as expected and your face is lit all day long. Mess worker let you have an extra sweet at lunch today.

The idea here is that there are some nasty things in life about which nothing can be done either because it's too late or it isn't within your scope to begin with. So what's the point worrying about them. If something is not in your hand that prolly praying will help but worrying about it will certainly not help and moreover it will occupy your mind all the time.
If there is guilt because of a mistake; then learn from it ; move on and forget it. Hate LOL, it's the funniest thing I have come across.
Coz the it ruins the person who hates and hated is happily enjoying his/her life.
Here you are hating another person, and spoiling you own mood and the other person is simply enjoying his/her life, prolly getting laid or having the time of their lives.
Don't pull yourself down by adding extra unnecessary responsibilities, sit-down, decide wat you want and then give a full shot at it, no holding back then.

Bottom line
_______________ hehehe

Don't worry, it will only make u mad and probably degrade your processing power,
instead prioritize and enjoy.

PS: No Trainer kit here. lemme know if u can fit a kit here as well

Brand name can only take you so far..

Whole of last week I have been doing shopping, at least a lot of window shopping. I have been to malls as well as road side shops, seen Reebok to Rebook(spoof brands). As a consumer the only thing that concerned me was the quality of the product I am buying. Though at times one tends to get biased by the brand name, what matters in the end is the quality and functionality. If the product is good enough you don't mind shelling out a few extra bucks. There are times when we do get ripped of in the name of a brand. What also holds true is that a non branded product can also be pretty good and worth every penny.

It's my favorite past time to develop analogy between situation which are miles apart. In the past I have compared electronics experiment setups in the lab to problems we face in real life, I know it's geeky.. but I am a geek bloke \m/. This post is one more classic example of how a simple idea can picked up from one place and put in another more complicated plot to help us get a better picture and understanding of the whole scenario.

I am student of the second batch of BITS, Pilani, Goa Campus. And here I stand without no regrets whatsoever. When I joined BITS I knew it was a new college and was very well aware of it's consequences. There were no expectations other than that of quality engineering education. There has been a lot of buzz among final year students about placements. Despite our best efforts to contact companies and foster awareness about our new and vibrant campus among the recruiters there hasn't been much response. Students like myself and many of batch mates who have put there heart and soul in what they like have been met with disappointment because their dream companies have not come for placements. All those long hours spent in the lab or on the streets of Mumbai looking for small components, while your friends were sleeping in their rooms or playing some computer games seem to be a waste now. Ones tends to think that after all these efforts, we all will end up in a BUS like the rest of the lazy bums who had fun and didn't do much all these years. We start blaming the officials responsible for not taking the required initiative to promote the campus.
The whole scene seems depressing and hope seems to be lost.

Let me give you another perspective of the whole situation, an approach from the employers point of view. He is no different from us. He is also a shopper out in the market to buy (... yes I said BUY) fresh new engineers. From his years of experience he has a blind trust in the famous brands like IITs, BITSes, NITs etc. But deep down inside even he is looking for talent(quality). He is looking for people who can take up the job at hand, make profit for his company. I agree that if one has the backing of brand then it's easier to get noticed by big companies. But if you have a brand tag attached to your collar, it doesn't give you the liberty to take things for granted, coz a a poor quality branded product never sells.

All of us here at BITSg had assumed that we have a good brand tag pinned to our collars and now that we have realized that it's not the case, we should not be disappointed, instead we have to improves ourselves to match up to the standards the buyer is expecting. Many of us have seen here at PS2 that ones inside a company it hardly matters whether you are from BITS or a a local college. All that matters is your competence in finishing the job at hand. So if think you have it in you, hang in their lads, some recruiter who realizes your potential will pick you up sooner or later. Hard work never goes waste, it's just a matter of time. Hold one to your passion, it's tronics for me, it may be mech for someone else.

It is all in the mind

There are a lot of goals we want to achieve in life. Lot of of kutti-kutti (small-small) things you wanna do as you move ahead. Each time when you think of a certain task, there are two voices in your head. One enumerates all the reason why the job at hand can be done, why you should take up this new challenge, and how this will help you in a certain way, may be academic of otherwise. But there is also another nasty bugger who keeps shouting why the job can't be done. Moreover it even tells you why the effort will be futile and why u r not capable enough to do it. I would like to elaborate more with a personal experience. I am sure most of my colleagues would be able to relate to this example, since it is something many of you must have come across your-selves.

Soon after my PS2 started I realised that I was gonna have a lot of free time here and that I should put it to some good use so that this 6 month long paid vacation does not go waste. Many of my friends were preparing for CAT 2008 so I decided that I will also give a shot at belling the CAT. I bought a couple of books, joined mock CAT and filled up the form. In all I spent 3.2k for this new sudden urge to give CAT. My mind had quickly sorted out the benefits of preparing for CAT, some of the most obvious ones were:

1. The Apti Qs will help for Campus Interview.
2. Since JEE I had not given a exam which really tests your analytical skills, most of the xams in college are straight forward and there is not much thinking involved, So it will nice way to get some mental exercise
3. Will be a good practise if at all I intent to do MBA in the future.
4. Something to keep my self busy since I had didn't have access to hardware for electronics projects and all.

I did in fact give first 3 mock tests which a percentile performance of 90, 70 and 50 respectively. I know its funny my performance went down the hill whereas people tend to generally improve with time.

Soon the bugger in mind started giving me reasons why the attempt for CAT was futile...
1.The test is on Sunday morning, Come on everyone deserves a good sleep on Sundays, after the weeks hard work.
2.IIMs do not prefer freshers.
3.I am not gonna get in so whats the point ?
4.I am lazy I am loving it that way. :D

So here I am two weeks for CAT and not a clue as to what is gonna happen on the D day. I have become complacent with the fact the this CAT exam is just a time pass for me and nothing more. What was CAT for me could be joining the GYM or learning a new skill for others.

When I had decided to give CAT I had many reasons why it will be useful, but as time passed on the I lost focus and started concentrating on why it was a waste of time and energy (money :) was already gone).

Always think the whole thing through before you make up your mind, do not make commitments you can't keep. Once when you are sure that what you r pursuing is correct then never-ever. Apart from that nasty bugger inside your head there will be others telling you why you will fail, just ignore them, believe in yourself and more importantly believe in the decisions you have taken and show your mettle by honoring them.

Here is my 3 k lost and a new lesson learned. Just another lab session with the trainer kit.